Bring Him Home
by Leonardo1885
Summary: Sequel to Healing the Broken. When one of the brothers goes missing the others will stop at nothing to find him and bring him home. But will they find him before someone else does?
1. Prologue

**I know it has been a while since I've written. This year has been, well crazy to say the least and I've had a hard time getting into the writing state of mind and so my writing was put on hold. I'm going to aim to write a chapter and get one posted every week. I might not always succeed with that but I have a few chapters written for this story already so hopefully it'll give me a head start. For those who were waiting for it yes this is the sequel to Healing the Broken. This is the prologue and because it is so short I will post chapter one later this weekend. Enjoy  
**

**Prologue**

Melinda hurried through times square, dodging around other pedestrians as she hurried on her way down the street. A few hot dog venders were busy filling orders to hungry fellow pedestrians but Melinda dodged around the crowds as she made her way past the NASDAQ building. She'd had a long hard day at work today and she was exhausted. Jogging quickly through the mass of people, all of who, just like her, were tired and anxious to get home after their long work days Melinda managed to make it down to the subway, just in time for a subway to pull in. A few excited looking tourists in nice clothes and dresses stepped out, talking excitedly about the shows they were going to see at the theater district, others, obviously those familiar with the ways of the big apple remained aboard, keeping their seats so all that was left was standing room.

Melinda scrambled aboard, grabbing one of the handholds to stop her from losing her balance when the subway began to move and adjusted her briefcase. Working as a secretary for Buddy Potkiss wasn't always easy, it demanded long hours, punctuality, reliability, and often Melinda took her work home with her just so she wasn't at the office more than thirteen hours a day. But she didn't complain. She was grateful that Buddy had taken her on. He predecessor had been extremely well organized and had been willing to show her the ropes. It had been easy enough to learn – just not always easy to execute now that she was on her own. She'd only been working for him for six months on Monday, and now that the weekend was here she planned on prepping for Monday's big meeting. Her briefcase seemed heavier this weekend thanks to all the extra packets she'd put in them to look over so she'd have a good idea about the investment Buddy Potkiss had planned on taking on.

Her feet were beginning to ache in her high heels by the time the subway finally reached her stop. She climbed off the subway gratefully and climbed wearily up to the streets and made her way down the street to her apartment. She was half tempted to take her shoes off and walk barefoot if only to get rid of the pains shooting through her toes. But she thought better of it. The streets weren't clean and walking barefoot on a rough surface was an easy way to wear holes in one's panty hose. And while she earned a fair wage working for Buddy, the apartment she'd managed to rent was priced steeply and ate up a good majority of her paychecks. She budgeted carefully every month to make sure she'd have enough for the basic essentials, but rarely would she spend more than she had to. Because of that she always had an emergency stash of money set aside just in case something came up.

Melinda's long blonde curls were falling down around her face, pulled loose from the long day and her fast jog through time square to catch the subway. She reached back and undid the clip, letting the long curls fall down her back. Her heels seemed to click loudly against the cement, the street seemed quieter than usual tonight. Melinda dug into her purse and pulled out her keys, grateful she was only another couple buildings down now. She always felt safer when she was in her apartment with the bolt locked, keeping her safe, and New York outside.

The city seemed to take on a different way of life after dark. Predators were lurking around almost every corner, ready to pounce out and take advantage of unsuspecting women, and rumors of a particular gang were getting around. The news had had several stories on them lately. Purple snakes… lizards… something along those lines. A bunch of tough street punks breaking into electronic stores, knocking off armored trucks and of course, taking advantage of several unsuspecting female victims. The women usually lived but were always roughed up as far as Melinda could tell from the stories anyway. The gang was a very hands on type of group and weren't afraid to get their hands dirty.

She shuddered a little and pulled her purse tighter to her side and adjusted her briefcase. Her heels clicked loudly in the nearly deserted street. She felt uneasy for some reason, as if unfriendly eyes were watching her from everywhere. Unconsciously she picked up her pace, practically jogging in her high heels as she hurried to reach her apartment. Her nice safe apartment.

It wasn't much, but most New York apartments weren't anything extravagant. But it had everything she needed as far as she was concerned. She fumbled with her keys, grabbing the right one but dropped them when she heard a horrendous crash from the alley right next to her. She swore and bent to pick them up, and readied herself to bolt, but her briefcase also fell and several papers scattered all over the place. She couldn't afford to lose those. They all had important data on them that she would need for the meeting next week.

She swore again and hurried to pick them up, and paused when she heard a groan. She straightened stiffly. The alley was dark, and seemed empty except for the two large dumpsters where she took her trash every week. But another low groan made her heart start to beat faster than usual. Someone was down there!


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey everyone. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I had someone ask me if this is a sequel to the sad or happy ending of Healing The Broken. The majority of you wanted Elizabeth and Akemi to live so they have. I'm going to aim to post every Sunday because my weekdays are usually packed and the next few Saturdays are chaos for me. If I miss please forgive me. Thanks for those who've taken the time to review. I appreciate it. And I'll see you all next week. Have a great week. **

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Gone**

Hamato Raphael was enjoying the quiet that had settled on the lair for once. It didn't come very often these days, not with a three year old who constantly seemed to be into everything, and had passed through the terrible two stage, only to enter the even worse than that terrible threes. He loved Akemi, he even thought of the human child, the daughter of his girlfriend of three years, as his own, but that didn't make her temper tantrums or constant screaming when she didn't get her way any easier to handle. It often rode on his already short fuse for his temper, and things between Elizabeth and himself had been strained lately because of it.

Raphael sighed. Elizabeth wasn't easily riled, she was the most even tempered person Raphael had ever met. She seemed to have endless patience, but she had seemed especially testy lately. Raphael wasn't sure if that was because of Akemi's more frequent temper tantrums or because it was "that time of the month" again. It seemed to be the only time where Elizabeth would really get angry and emotionally unstable. One minute she could be as mad as hornets, the next minute she'd be weeping all over the place, which made Raphael extremely uncomfortable.

Raphael shifted on the couch and sipped at his soda as he flipped through the channels on the TV. Elizabeth had put Akemi to bed a little over an hour ago, and after screaming for a solid twenty minutes Akemi had finally grown quiet. Raphael had seen the relieved look on his brother Leonardo's face as his brother had headed to his room to meditate. Donatello, had already retreated to his lab and closed the door so no one would disturb him. Michelangelo wasn't even the lair. He had mentioned something about some comic convention but Raphael hadn't paid too much attention. Comics weren't his thing. In fact he thought they were a complete waste of time and thought most of the characters in those comics were wusses. Especially the ones who wore tights.

"Mmm… can't we watch something besides this?" Elizabeth asked as she sat down next to him, bringing a bowl of popcorn with her. Raph lifted his arm, allowing her to curl in against his side. She did, resting her head against his plastron and snuggling close while popping a few pieces of popcorn into her mouth.

"What cha wanna watch?" Raph asked, agreeably. He was just as anxious to do something with Elizabeth as she was to do with him, something that didn't include fighting for a change.

Elizabeth shrugged. "Anything but Die Hard. I'm tired of that movie."

Raphael chuckled but got up to see if anything in their small DVD collection would be of any interest to him. He smirked finding one and held it up. Elizabeth made a face.

"Something with a little less gore? I'm really not in the mood to watch so many people get their heads sliced off."

Raph shook his head and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "Why don't ya pick somet'in'? Dat way yer 'appy wit' it."

Elizabeth sighed. "As long as it isn't the Lion King or too gory I don't care what we watch."

"T'ink dat da Lion King is gettin' worn out," Raph commented drily.

"Good, then we won't have to listen to it so much," Elizabeth grumbled.

Raph couldn't help but chuckle.

Akemi had taken a very strong liking to the animated Disney movie and insisted on watching it whenever she could. If Raphael or Elizabeth refused to put it in for her, she would either harass one of her uncles until they caved in, or, simply put it in herself. She had only recently learned that she could put the shiny disk into the player herself and Raph was honestly surprised that the DVD would play anymore because of it. The amount of times Akemi had watched it had increased ten-fold over the past few days, and the poor DVD was covered in scratches, fingerprints, and even had a sticky orange spot on the backside of it. Raphael wouldn't be surprised if the DVD just threw in the towel altogether one of these days. Raphael had counted at least six times that he'd seen Akemi watching the stupid thing in one day. Heck, those songs were playing so often in the lair Raph had caught Mikey humming them to himself while he'd made lunch, but Raph had quickly discouraged that with a sharp smack on the back of his head.

Raph scowled looking at the DVD's he didn't know what to pick. He heard the couch shift a little as Elizabeth got up. Probably better if he let her pick the DVD. He felt her long brown hair tickle his shoulder as she leaned over him to look at the titles.

"What about this one?" She asked, pointing.

"Ya serious?" Raph asked, skeptically.

"Come on, Raph – it's funny. And it has action in it as well. You'll like it I promise."

Raph sighed but took the green case out and pulled out the DVD. Elizabeth was already back on the couch, moving the popcorn to her lap while she waited for Raph to put the DVD into the player. Raph joined her less than a minute later, wrapping his arm comfortably around her shoulders and drawing her close.

"You ever seen this movie before?" Elizabeth asked as Raphael pushed play and the movie began.

"I t'ink I've seen parts of it. Mos' animal movies either da people or da animal dies. Dey are all depressin'."

"Didn't know you were so sensitive," Elizabeth teased.

"I ain't – I like action, dat's all. Des movies are all lovin' and carin' and stuff like dat."

Elizabeth chuckled. "This one is funny and it has action, Raph."

"Raphael!"

Raph half-turned staring at his older brother over the back of the couch. "What do ya want, fearless?"

"Have you seen Michelangelo?"

"He said he was goin' out."

"Alone?" Leonardo frowned, his dark brown eyes narrowing behind his mask. "How long has he been gone?"

"An hour I t'ink. He'll be fine, fearless. He had dat comic convention t'ing tonight. He ain't gonna git in trouble."

Leo scowled. "None of us should be out there alone, Raph. Not with the increased purple dragon and foot activity."

"Mikey's a chucklehead, but he ain't dumb, Leo. He ain't gonna engage da foot or no dragons."

Leo huffed, and Raph suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. But he could see now was not the time to rile Leo up. If he and Leo got into a shouting match it would wake Akemi, and then not only would he have an irritated older brother but a screaming three-year-old to contend with, and then there would be Elizabeth's temper to deal with as well. She might be slow to anger, quick to cool most of the time, but if Akemi had already been put to bed for the night, and someone woke her Elizabeth was a force to be reckoned with.

Normally he enjoyed jerking Leo's chain. His brother really needed to loosen up a little, he could be such a stick in the mud. But there really was no point in doing so tonight. The lair was quiet and peaceful, and Mikey would be just fine. Raph turned back to the TV watching as Tom Hanks, playing a cop, walked down the deck, turning a muffin nervously in his fingers. And then, quite suddenly, a Dogue de Bordeaux leapt over the top of the door and ran at him, knocked him down, and clamped his teeth around his throat as the muffin went flying into the air, fell to the damp dock, and rolled several times before coming to a stop right side up.

Elizabeth chuckled, and Raph smirked as he adjusted her more comfortably against him. How much trouble could Mikey get into at a comic convention anyway?

* * *

Melinda's heart was pounding in her chest, the adrenaline coursing through her veins was sharpening her senses and she could hear every single noise, including her own, terrified breathing.

Another groan, low, soft, pained. Someone was hurt down there! But it wasn't really her concern was it? Still she couldn't just leave someone alone down there if they were hurt… she'd been brought up to know better than that. Her father, who'd passed away from cancer just a year before would have been so disappointed in her.

Pulling out her cell phone, Melinda started to call 911, but paused. She had no idea who she was calling for, and if it was a homeless bum down there they'd refuse the medical treatment anyway. She paused with her finger hovering over the 1 button and then, before she could talk herself out of it proceeded down the alleyway.

Her high heels clicked on the cement, her heart pounding in her chest. She paused. This was stupid, she should just call 911 and let the authorities handle it. Whoever it was that was hurt could be dangerous. Could try to hurt her. She wasn't a fighter. And she was petite, though she worked out regularly, she knew that she could easily be overcome if the man, and she was certain it was a man down here, was strong enough.

She gripped the phone again, almost hard enough to crack the casing. Her stomach jumped to her throat and she had to fight he initial instinct to flee.

Another groan distracted her and she took another cautious step towards the double dumpsters. "H... Hello? Is – is someone down here?"

A groan.

Using her phone to light the pavement before her she made her way cautiously forward, not sure what was compelling her to actually see who was down here, but now that she was, adrenaline coursed through her veins, making her feel braver than she actually was.

The light the phone provided was dim, and even though she was being cautious, she tripped and nearly went sprawling, only preventing it by latching onto the side of the dumpster. She swore softly and turned, glaring at the ground to see what she had tripped over and nearly screamed. She clapped a hand over her mouth to stop it before it had any volume.

It wasn't what made her trip that had startled her, that seemed to be two pieces of wood contained by a short length of chain. A weapon perhaps? No. That wasn't what had made her heart pound, sent adrenaline through her veins, and made her blood chill in horror at the same time. It was a leg. It was green with a large two-toed foot on the end. But it was definitely a leg. What was that? Some kind of funky costume or something? But Halloween wasn't for months. She frowned, holding her phone up and allowed it to drift up the rest of the body.

The costumed man was sprawled on its back, head turned away, just to the side of the dumpster. The costume was amazing. If she didn't know better she would've thought that it wasn't really a costume. But such a creature couldn't exist. It looked like a giant turtle. There was no such thing. She chuckled to herself at the impossibility of it. Braver now she came closer. The man's head was turned away, well, at least the "turtle head" part of the costume was turned away. She frowned a little using the dim light of her phone to drift over the costume and get a better look. The mask was a bit much. Why would they have to put a mask on the already theatrical costume? That was a bit of an overkill. This guy obviously loved theatrics.

Her eyes continued to roam down the costume. The green such a strange shade, not one she'd think of when she thought of turtles. Darker than she would've thought. His front plating – what was that called again? She had failed biology, she'd never been interested in learning about animals and had found that class completely useless. What was the point in knowing what a turtle's front part of the shell was called? It wasn't like she'd ever need to know it in real life anyway. Let the biologists and scientists know – as a secretary that information meant little to her. But seeing it now made her curious. There were a few imperfections in the foam. Dents, chips, as if the front had been damaged in some way. The detail to it was amazing! Melinda had never seen such a thing before.

The front shelled part of the costume ended at a point right above his thighs, which were the same shade of green, but he had weird leather pads on his knees, she frowned. She'd seen similar pads on his elbows and weird leather bands around his wrists. This guy was crazy – and what was with the belt around the armor plating? Definitely seemed like overkill. The costume itself was enough.

Melinda was so engrossed in her examination she didn't notice when he stirred at first, at least until he groaned. His head shifted slightly, the three fingered hand twitched and then he was still again.

Melinda frowned, concerned. She reached forward, meaning to touch his arm, but hesitated. Was this some kind of stunt? Had he lured her in here to scare her, and she was almost at the brunt of his joke – the part where he grabbed her and pulled off the turtle head with a smirk?

"Sir? Sir? Are you alright?"

She got no answer. He didn't reach out to grab her. He didn't seem coiled ready to spring at her. He must really be hurt!

Convinced now that this was no joke and this guy, theatrical or not, really did need help she reached out boldly to comfort him with her touch while she dialed 911 – but recoiled in shock when her fingers came into contact with… something alive! She'd expected fine foam, soft and giving under her fingers. Not living breathing flesh! Her breath caught in her throat. That was no costume!

She found herself pressed against the opposite alley wall with no idea on how she'd gotten there, staring at the creature in horror. Her breath was rasping up and down her throat, her chest heaving in terror. This couldn't be possible! This kind of thing didn't happen!

She felt her heart thud painfully against her ribcage as she watched the turtle for several long minutes. She should just leave it there. It wasn't her concern. It was carrying weapons, and it was clearly athletic – she'd seen the definition of his muscles. She didn't even like animals. She'd been coaxed into going to the pet store with her younger sister when they were younger, mainly because Christine couldn't drive and had needed a ride. Melinda had stared at the varieties of animals on display with an air of disdain. Pets were stinky, noisy, expensive, and a lot of work. Even the turtles had cost almost a hundred dollars a piece depending on what species the shop had in stock at the time.

But Christine had always loved animals. Melinda knew what Christine would be doing in her place right now. She'd have cared for the creature, looked him over for injuries, tried to make him comfortable with no fear. But Christine wasn't here – she was in Montana on a small but growing ranch/dude ranch with her husband Mark of just over two years. Mark had quit the railroad so he could be with her at the ranch full time. Christine had been thrilled.

Her thoughts snapped back to the creature when he groaned again, stirring slightly. He rolled his head, so he was facing her and Melinda saw his eyelids part, revealing his eyes. They were clouded in pain and confusion and… to Melinda's shock… intelligence. He blinked once and then his eyelids closed again.

Melinda took a step forward, once again emboldened from something she wasn't sure she'd had up until then. She moved cautiously towards the creature and half crouched next to him, touching his arm. He didn't move. Didn't recoil. Didn't even twitch.

She let her eyes roam over him again. She just couldn't get used to him. How could anyone ever just get used to such an impossible thing? One of his mask tails had flopped over his shoulder, and was laying on the yellow armor plating on his front, it was torn and the side of it stained with something dark. She frowned but didn't dare move closer to look. One of the creature's arm was sprawled over his stomach, the other was twisted at such an odd angle that Melinda felt her insides twist and her stomach lurch. It was obviously broken and in need of medical care. He had a few scrapes and bruises, there was a gash on his thigh that needed tending to. Melinda felt pity twist her heart. She couldn't just leave this poor thing out here alone when it was obviously hurt and in need of help. But she couldn't call the authorities either. She knew they'd get one look at this poor giant turtle and it would either be put on display at the zoo – or become the victim of a dissection table with the body being stuffed, mounted, and put on display in a museum when they had finished ripping him apart. Animal lover or not – Melinda wasn't cruel. She bit her lip, thinking hard for a minute.

Melinda sat there for a long time. She wasn't sure how long but she felt her ankles going numb from the loss of circulation as she sat on her knees on the cold cement. Finally she knew that she couldn't leave this poor thing out here alone. It was getting late and cold, and he was hurt. "Don't worry," she said quietly as her fingers brushed his bicep, and her eyes widened slightly at the now clearly defined muscles there. "I'll help you."


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey everyone. Happy Sunday hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend. Can't believe it's December already. Thank you again to those who leave reviews, they are greatly appreciated. I am going to try really hard to update next Sunday - but next weekend, well this whole week really is going to be really busy for me. We have our monthly meeting at work and then inventory which means I'll be working really long hours this weekend with no idea what time I'll be getting home and I have a class to teach Sunday. So I can't promise but I promise I will try. If not I apologize. Have a great week everyone. **

**Donata desu ka - Who are you  
**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Something's Wrong**

Hamato Leonardo was a very unhappy turtle. Michelangelo hadn't even told him he was going out tonight, and he wasn't thrilled with the idea of his youngest brother being out there alone. Even with the panic buttons Donatello had installed into their shell cells, something could prevent Michelangelo from getting to it if he ran into trouble. With all the increased gang and foot activities recently it made it ill-advisable to go out. Even when the brothers went on patrol as a team they were cautious.

The fact that Raphael had known where Michelangelo was going and had let him go alone had not helped. Leonardo knew that Raphael had been enjoying some much needed quiet time with Elizabeth, but he also knew how dangerous it could be for one of them to be topside alone.

Frustrated, Leonardo had retreated to his room to meditate, to quiet his mind and relax. But after an hour of being unable to connect with the spiritual plane he'd given it up as a bad job and sighed, opening his eyes. He couldn't concentrate, couldn't let go of the feeling that something wasn't right. That something was going to happen, or had happened already.

Sighing again he got up, put out the candles and left the bedroom. The living room was quiet, the TVs turned off, the couch empty. Raphael's bedroom door was closed. Leonardo headed down the stairs, Elizabeth had more than likely retired for the night, but the pounding of fists punishing a punching bag told Leonardo that Raphael was still awake and using his bag as a way to release some built up tension.

Michelangelo's door was still open, the room dark. Leonardo frowned. It was going on midnight. Surely the convention was over by now. So where was Mikey?

His eyes narrowed marginally and he didn't bother with the rest of the stairs, flipping off the railing and landing lightly on the level below he checked the kitchen automatically. But it was noticeably silent. A few of the dinner dishes were still drying in the rack and a few dark crumbs that Donatello had missed when he'd spilled some coffee beans onto the counter still sat next to the sink. There was no sign Michelangelo had been there recently, and already knowing that his brother wasn't playing video games our checking out the new comics he'd gotten Leonardo did the only thing he could think of. He had to talk to the others. They had a brother to find.

* * *

Melinda wiped some sweat away from her forehead, and then finished wrapping the broken arm, using two wooden spoons for splints to keep it in place as she gingerly but tightly wrapped the white gauze around the limb.

Getting him inside her apartment hadn't been easy, and she'd worried, as she'd tried to haul him to his feet and realized with a start how heavy he was that she might not be able to move him at all. He was easily almost double her weight and he had leaned on her heavily, bearing almost none of his own weight. She'd prayed gratefully that she'd managed to get a ground floor apartment. So that meant she'd only had to get him up the front stoop and down the hall to her small one bedroom apartment. It was nothing fancy, but it suited her needs nicely.

The creature, turtle Melinda now knew for sure thanks to the large shell on his back, had been in and out of consciousness. When she'd first tried to move him he'd seemed to come around. He had been dazed, unfocused, and hadn't fought her as she'd pulled him to his feet. She'd nearly buckled under his weight and desperately had kicked off her high heel shoes to give herself a steadier base to support his weight.

After maneuvering him ever so slowly up the six front steps and almost dragging him down the hall as he'd sagged again, she had unlocked her apartment, deposited him on the couch and gone back to the alley to retrieve her shoes, cell phone, and briefcase. But, it was then that she'd noticed weird stick like weapons – two of them. There had been sticks on each end of a short length of chain, and they'd had the same silk binding on them as the turtle had on his face. The same color too. The material was worn, obviously aged, but soft against her fingers. Impulsively she'd picked them up and had also spotted a small shell shaped object. She had no idea what that was either, but she'd figured it had to belong to the turtle creature as well. So gathering up her shoes, the weapons, her own phone, and briefcase. She'd once again returned to her apartment to see the creature hadn't moved from where she'd left him on the couch. His breathing was deep, even.

Frowning a little she'd put down her items and returned to the couch, putting her fingers to his cool neck. His pulse was a bit fast, and she was startled to see a red stain bleeding into her white couch slip. She hadn't even noticed he was bleeding. Not when she'd been so distracted with what he was, and how heavy he'd been when she'd tried to get him inside.

Alarmed, Melinda turned his head and saw a gash on the side of his head, deep and staining his orange mask red along with her couch. The mask would have to come off… that gash would need to be stitched. Melinda hesitated. She knew how to stitch wounds. Her mother had been a nurse and had insisted that both her girls learn how to do emergency treatments in case for some reason emergency services weren't available. It wasn't something her sister had really taken to, squirming uncomfortably as they'd learned how to stitch skin together with a needle and heavy thread. But Melinda had found herself quite good at it. But she had no idea how this creature would take to her doctoring it. His mouth was awfully large, and she was sure he had big teeth. Not to mention his muscle definition. They were impressive, he was obviously athletic.

Still she couldn't just let him bleed all over her couch, and his arm had to be set before he went into shock.

She'd gotten up, retrieved her first aid kit and gotten to work before she could talk herself out of it. The arm had been badly broken, but Melinda had worked quickly, setting the arm first and then splinting it with the sticks and wrapping it tightly with white gauze. Then she wetted a gauze pad with some peroxide and gently applied it to the head wound.

The creature groaned, stirring a little under fingers. She pulled back, startled. Would it wake up and attack her? He groaned again, and went still once again. She waited a minute before she once again put pressure to the wound, this time he didn't move.

Her heart began to pound furiously in her chest as she reached for the sturdy needle and heavy thread she used to stitch wounds. Her top teeth dug deeply into her bottom lip and she pierced the tender flesh with the tip of the needle. She jerked, expecting him to wake and lunge at her, but he didn't.

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and began the delicate stitches. She was a little more than halfway done when he groaned, stirring, and she froze.

Oh no! She thought. He's waking up!

* * *

"His shell cell signal is faint, Leo," Donatello said, frowning at his computer screen at the orange light that would blink faithfully for a minute than blank out, as if it were… damaged.

But if Mikey had accidentally dropped it, he would've come straight home, apologizing to Donatello and giving him some excuse on how he'd been so excited about the new comics and how it wasn't his fault that his shell cell had dropped five stories and smashed to the pavement below. It wouldn't be the first time, Donatello thought, and he knew it wouldn't be the last time he'd have to repair his brother's shell cell. But Michelangelo at least didn't break his as often as Raph broke his, and Michelangelo was always good to answer his phone when his brothers called, where as Raph only answered if he felt like it.

Leonardo leaned over his brother's shoulder, glaring at the screen. "Do you think it's a blimp?"

"Possibly," Donatello said frowning. "It hasn't moved for a while," he added clicking the mouse and pulling up a document with words and numbers, which looked very disorganized to Leo, but that Don had no trouble deciphering. "It's been there for at least an hour and a half," he said, his frown deepening in concern.

"I'll get, Raph." Leo said straightening. "We're going to go find him. He might be hurt. I don't like this."

"Ok, Leo," Don said quietly, watching as his oldest brother quickly hurried from the room before turning back to the screen. He closed the document and looked at the small grid as the orange light blinked once more than went out for the last time. "Hang on, Mike. We're coming."

He clicked off the monitor, grabbed his bo from the corner and left the lab to see Leo waiting impatiently by the front door, katana already on his back, eyes narrowed, arms crossed across his plastron. Raph emerged from the dojo just as Don passed it, his sai in his belt, his amber eyes taking on the glint they took when he was worried for one of them.

The three brothers didn't need to share words, but quickly slipped out into the quiet tunnels of the sewer. They had a missing brother to find, and bring home. Nothing would stop them.

* * *

Melinda was frozen over the giant turtle, heart pounding in her chest, eyes wide with horror as his eyes opened slowly. She withdrew her hands, leaving the needle hanging where it sat dangling on the thread, stitches incomplete, rotating slowly around and around with the sharp point down, almost touching his green shoulder.

He groaned again, lifting his uninjured arm to his head, reaching for the few stitches she'd managed to finish.

"No!" Melinda said, impulsively reaching out to catch his wrist and stop him from undoing her hard work. "Don't do that! You'll tear the stitches."

She wondered, why she was explaining. He was a turtle. He wouldn't understand English.

His eyes slowly turned to look at her and she was surprised to see that they were a startling shade of blue. A turtle with blue eyes? Well there's always a first. He blinked at her, confused, and dazed. He opened his mouth and automatically Melinda withdrew her hand, wary of being bitten. But she almost fell over in shock when he spoke.

"Donata desu ka?"

She blinked, astonished. He could speak? That didn't seem possible. Obviously she was over worked and hallucinating. Yes. That must be it. Turtles couldn't talk. Not even giant ones. She felt as if the world had suddenly titled and was spinning out of control.

The turtle didn't move, or speak again. But his eyes drifted closed once more. Melinda, a little alarmed now that the turtle creature, whoever he was, seemed to be coming in and out of consciousness so quickly. That could indicate a serious hit to the head and a severe concussion, which she knew, if left untreated could make him slip into a coma. She was a bit overwhelmed. She didn't know much about head injuries, but she knew they could be serious. Even at a hospital with proper care, and she obviously couldn't take him to a hospital. Hesitantly she reached out touching his strange leathery skin. But he didn't seem to notice.

She kept one eye on his face and the other on her work as she got back to stitching up his head wound.

Twenty minutes later she washed the blood off her hands and watched the pink water swirl down the drain, removing the evidence of her doctoring the giant turtle. But what in the world was she supposed to do with him now? Or what would she do if his condition got worse? This wasn't a simple matter at all and she found herself wondering how she'd gotten into this situation in the first place. She certainly wouldn't call a zoo or a lab, not that she would've done that anyway – she despised both places, but this creature had actually spoken to her. He was intelligent. Of course she hadn't had a clue to what he'd said, but he had indeed spoken. A foreign language. Was he not from around here? And if he wasn't how did he get here? And why was he here?

Melinda filled up the sink with cold water and then put the orange mask into the basin to soak. It would help get rid of some of the blood before she put it in to be washed. She knew the creature would want it back, but now it would be clean. There had been a small rip at the top part of the mask right under where the gash had been, it had obviously torn on something. Probably one of the rough bricks. The dark bruising she'd discovered when she'd taken the mask off his eyes had confirmed he'd hit his head on something good and solid. She was sure he'd have one heck of a headache when he finally did wake up.

The mask floated to the top of the water, the eye holes clearly visible in the swirling pink water. Impulsively Melinda touched the material again.

"But why would he need it in the first place?" She asked herself again. The material had been sleek and soft under her fingers, but the knot at the back of his head tight. She had broken the nail on her forefinger when she'd untied it, but she'd finally succeeded in freeing the knot and getting the mask off the injured turtle.

"I just hope I'm doing the right thing," she muttered. She stepped back out of the bathroom and walked into the living room again. Her guest hadn't moved. She sighed, picked up her briefcase and headed to the kitchen to make herself a strong drink and get to work.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey everyone. Again I apologize for last week. That weekend was a nightmare with me working 14 hour days for inventory and then getting very sick. I really wasn't up to it and this week has been just as busy. And on top of that my own computer crashed. I have a backup copy of my story and I will continue to work on new chapters as often as I can. I have the next few chapters done which should allow me to keep posting until after Christmas. I decided to go ahead and post this new chapter today because I have a lot of work to do this weekend for company presents. Cooking three kinds of cookies, fudge, and white chocolate covered popcorn for company gifts will take up most of my weekend and I didn't want to skip on another week with no updates. But I didn't think I'd have time later this weekend, so best to do it now while I was thinking about it. Thank you again for those who take the time to review. I will always update when I have the time - which is always the weekends, weekdays are too busy. Enjoy the rest of your weekend guys and I'll be back next week. **

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Clues**

"Ya sure dis is da place, Don," Raph growled as he glared down at the empty alley below them, crouching, one foot on top of the ledge of the building. His amber eyes narrowed behind his mask. "Why would Mikey come all da way over 'ere when da convention is an hour away on foot?"

"This is where his Shell Cell signal went offline, Raph," Don snapped impatiently. Worry for his younger brother making his tone unnaturally sharp. He too had been wondering the same thing. Why would Michelangelo come clear out here? This part of town wasn't on the way back to the lair. The quickest and easiest access was through the park, the lair wasn't far from Central Park. But out here... way out here... it would take Michelangelo out of the way of the lair and out of the way of his brothers. What could have happened that would have driven Michelangelo to come out this way when it was so far from home - and so far from help? Was he trying to lead someone away from their lair? Alone? The thought made Donatello's blood go icy cold. Michelangelo could be a pain in the shell sometimes. Always excited over shiny buttons and colorful chemicals that Donatello had in his lab. He often had to throw Michelangelo out before he could make something explode and cause serious damage to the lair itself because of his curiosity.

But the thought of Michelangelo being out here alone, chased by Purple Dragons or by the Foot - alone. Without the aid of his brothers... while they had all been at home, oblivious to the fact that their youngest brother was in trouble sent chills up and down Donatello's spine. If something had happened to his little brother... Mikey was the only little brother he had. They just had to get him back. "If" wasn't an option. They would get their brother back. Michelangelo was family. They would never give up on him.

Donatello's chocolate brown eyes scanned the alleyway desperately, searching for some sign of their missing younger brother. But, like Raphael, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. The dumpsters below were overflowing with rotting garbage that wouldn't be taken away for another few days, the stench reaching them even up here on the roof, making him wrinkle his beak in disgust and he breathed through his mouth instead, making the smell more bearable. There was some graffiti on the walls, various street gangs leaving their marks, but nothing unfamiliar to the sights of native New Yorkers like he and his brothers were. Graffiti was everywhere. There were also a few cardboard boxes stacked in the far corner of the alley, not shaped in the way of a shelter like there were in some alleys that homed the homeless people who huddled away where no one would see them in the dark corners of these lonely alleys. These ones were just sadly piled up, waiting like the dumpster for the garbage truck to come take them away. The only thing that did seem off about the dark alley was the large stain of something that someone had spilled. It was probably a bottle of soda or a garbage sack that had popped open and had spilled liquid all over. It seemed insignificant, and like Raphael, Donatello wondered if they should keep looking else where for their brother.

"I don't see da chucklehead." Raph said with a snort of disgust from lack of results. "How do we know dat da chucklehead's phone didn't jus' malfunction an' he's at 'ome right now playin' dem video games an' fergot ta call while we're out 'ere like a bunch o' idiots searchin' fer 'im?"

Next to him Leonardo shifted his weight, ignoring his two younger brothers as his own dark eyes scanned the alley, seeing nothing that his brothers hadn't already seen. His dark brown eyes narrowed as a chill ran down his shell. His big brother senses, the one that always seemed to know when his brothers were in trouble, when they needed him. The one that kept his senses sharp and alert during battle, the one that always strived to make sure that no matter what they were facing, no matter what the consequences were to himself, the one that always strive to make sure his brothers were safe, the same one was alerting him to something now. Something that told him Michelangelo had been here, that he had come here for a reason, although like his brothers he didn't know what that reason would be. But he had a feeling that Michelangelo needed them. And that he wasn't far away.

Turning away from the edge of the roof with another snort of disgust Raphael headed back across the roof in the direction they'd come. "I say we go 'ome an' pound da chucklehead fer not callin'."

Leo's sharp eyes roamed away from the alley and over the surrounding rooftops, and narrowed when he spotted the crumbling bricks on the building across from this one. Not that that was unusual with these older buildings. These buildings were old and time and the elements often made the edges of these older buildings unstable. If a janitor was up there working it could have easily given way but still given him enough time to step back as the bricks crumbled and dust and chips fell to the alley below. But Leonardo couldn't help but feel that something was off here. There was something not right. He had a feeling it wasn't a janitor that had made those bricks crumble. He continued to glare at it, still ignoring Raphael's sharp remarks about how Michelangelo was playing them all for a fool and Leo was falling right into his joke if he kept searching for him.

And then as the wind blew past them a flash of color had Leonardo's eyes widening. "Raph, wait."

"Fer what, fearless?" Raph asked eyes narrowed at his older brother, chest puffing out in a rebellious gesture that told Leonardo he was ready to argue, ready to pick a fight, trying anyway he could to hide the fear that shared with Leonardo. The fear that Michelangelo was alone, hurt alone and bleeding out somewhere without the aid of his brothers. Or that he'd been taken by someone or several someones to places unknown.

Irritation rose within Leonardo's chest at his brother's tone but he forced it down with an effort and without a second thought he leapt for the next building, making sure to distance himself upon landing far enough away from the unstable bricks that seemed ready to give way under anymore weight that might rest upon them. He turned and headed back for the edge, hearing. He didn't hear Raphael's complaining anymore, or Donatello's logical explanations of what could have happened with the shell cell that could possibly make it malfunction in a way that Michelangelo's signal would have just stopped and died here, such as accidentally dropping it in a puddle or it falling as Michelangelo ran and him not noticing that he didn't have it until he got home. Leonardo knew Michelangelo was often careless and his phone was broken almost as much as Raphael's, but Michelangelo, if he had broken the shell or realized it was missing, would have come back for it, apologizing to Donatello with the sad remains. The fact that he hadn't... told Leonardo that Michelangelo had not been able to get to his phone... or that someone had taken it from him and broken it themselves. Either was not at all a welcome thought for the oldest turtle.

As Leonardo crouched to examine the crumbling bricks, running his fingers over the rough edges he heard the twin thumps that announced his two brothers joining him on the building. He frowned as his fingers felt the flaky, but not unfamiliar texture of dry blood. The flaky substance rubbed off on his fingers and he brushed it off with his thumb, the small brown flakes drifting off his fingers and to the rooftop next to his feet.

"What is it, Leo?" Raph asked stepping closer.

Leo rubbed the last of the dry blood off his fingers, straightening. "Something happened here, Raph."

"Like what?" Raph asked.

Leonardo shook his head. He wasn't at all sure. But he didn't like this. This felt wrong.

"If someone 'urt da chucklehead, I'm gonna... " Raph growled eyes narrowing to mere amber slits as he pulled out his sai and began to scan the rooftop, looking for further clues.

Leonardo ignored Raph's muttered curses, knowing that even though Michelangelo often seemed to really get under Raph's shell. That Raph was the one who always seemed to get the most irritated with his brother. That he would always be goaded into chasing Michelangelo while Michelangelo threw wise cracks at him that would only enrage the red banded turtle further, when it came down to it Michelangelo was still their brother. Their baby brother. And even though he drove them all crazy at times, they loved each other.

Donatello knelt down next to Leonardo examining the bricks himself, running his fingers over the rough edges of the broken bricks, his face grim, and Leonardo knew that he too had discovered what Leonardo himself already knew. It was blood, not a lot but it was blood.

"You're right, Leo," Don said softly, slowly straightening and looking his big brother in the eye. "Something did happen here."

Raph's growl rumbled in his throat. "Mikey?" It wasn't really a question and the others knew it. Michelangelo's shell cell signal had stopped here, the chances of it being unrelated to Michelangelo were slim. "Someone take 'im?"

"There's no way to know that without more clues, Raph," Don said turning to face his red banded brother. Like his brother his eyes scanned the rooftop, looking for other clues, some little something that would be out of place telling them that there had been a fight here. That someone had cornered his brother, that Michelangelo had put up a fight. That he had been carried off. That he hadn't just been left out somewhere, that he hadn't been thrown in someone's dumpster to rot while his brothers sat comfortably at home.

No! Michelangelo had to be ok! He just had to be! Anything else wouldn't be acceptable.

Leonardo's eyes returned to the alley below, his eyes straying to the overflowing dumpster again, his heart tightening in his chest as his own thoughts took the same direction that Donatello's had. The thought of his baby brother, stuffed in a dumpster with all the other trash. Alone. Scared. Or...

Before the conscious thought to examine the alley way more thoroughly really occurred to him Leonardo was flipping off the edge of the roof and landed with barely more than a soft thump below, landing on the balls of his feet, one hand out to help him balance as he landed. He sat like that for half a minute, taking in the sounds around him. The scurry of the frightened alley rats at his sudden appearance, their sharp claws scratching the cement as they ran for cover, scurrying to the furthest corners and hiding in the cardboard boxes. The distant sound of traffic, a few horns honking, but there was no indication that he'd been spotted. No lights flashing on in the windows, no fluttering of drapes. The night was still. He straightened and again scanned the alley, searching his eyes automatically straying towards the dumpster, but froze. The stain seemed larger, darker somehow now that he was closer to it. It didn't look like soda. Or anything else someone would put in a trash bag.

He walked over slowly, almost unwillingly and crouched down, touching the puddle with the tips of his fingers. It was still a little damp, but as he rubbed his fingers together it had the same texture and coppery smell that he had gotten all too familiar with over the years. The smell that made his stomach churn, the smell that made his adrenaline rush through his veins. Suddenly every sense was heightened. If there was one thing that could really make his adrenaline rush through his veins it was blood. His own could do it, but the sight of his brother's blood could do it much faster.

But was this blood Michelangelo's? He needed Donatello for this. It was beyond him. He couldn't tell this blood from a human's who might have gotten into a knife fight with a gang member. But what if it was Michelangelo's? What if something had happened to him like it had happened to Leonardo when they had been fifteen? When Leonardo had gone out for a training run and had been ambushed by the foot, chased across the city with the relentless attacks wearing him down until his muscles shook and his legs threatened to give out on him, protesting the strenuous amount of exercise and abuse that he had taken from the beatings he'd taken. Had the same thing happened to Mikey? No. Leo couldn't bear the thought. No Mikey had to be ok. He had to be!

Anger and fear warred for supremacy as he straightened looking up at the rooftops where he could feel his worried brothers' eyes on him. "Raph, Don," he said it as if they were standing right next to him rather than six stories above him. But he didn't need to speak louder. He knew they would hear him. And within three seconds they were both standing next to him. Leo felt Raph's hand fall on his shoulder, he didn't bother to shrug it off.

"What'd ya find, bro?"

Leo gestured to the puddle. There was too much of it to have dried quickly, and the blood still glinted a little in the faint street lights at the head of the alley. Donatello's eyes narrowed and he walked over to it. Leonardo felt Raphael go tense beside him. They watched as Don walked to the puddle, touching the shiny bit of blood in the middle of the drying puddle. Don rubbed his fingers together, his shoulders stiffening and Leonardo felt his stomach clench tightly.

"It's... I'm not sure if it is Mikey's, Leo." Don said turning. "But it seems a bit thin for human blood."

Raph growled next to Leo's ear.

Leo turned to his red banded brother, forcing the strong older brother, the leader to come out to take control. To force himself to reassure his brothers. To try and convince himself... though he knew that it was a long shot. Still it was all he could do.

"We'll find him, Raph. We will... we won't stop until we bring him home. I promise."

"It's going to be light soon, Leo," Don said as he glanced up at the sky.

Leo nodded his acknowledgement. It would, Don was right. And they should get back and inform Master Splinter of what they had found. Though he felt as if he was letting their father down by knowing so little answers that only led to more questions.

"So we're jus' gonna go 'ome without 'im?"

"Raph, we don't have a choice! We can't stay out here - it'll be dawn in twenty minutes. What good will we be to Mikey if we get captured too? What will that do to Splinter if we never come home?"

"He could be in da 'ands of a lunatic who's tryin' ta cut 'im up right now!"

Raph struck a cord and he knew it, Leonardo looked torn as his face went a little gray.

"We... could ask April and Casey to look for him... search for more clues we might have missed," Donatello said quietly, he too looked a little shaky and sick from the thought of Michelangelo being bound and cut apart piece by piece by a scientist. "I'll do some research, look into scientific journals, break into the biggest labs security surveillance systems. If he is at a lab, we'll find out pretty quickly and we'll get him out."

Raph hesitated, but knew Donatello had a good point. He could search through the security systems through his computer faster than Raph could on foot.

Leonardo squeeze Raphael's shoulder this time, drawing his amber eyes back to Leonardo's dark brown ones. "We'll call April and Casey. You know they'll look for him until we can come back out again. Don will do research at home. I promise, Raphael, we will find him. We will bring him home.

Raph grasped Leonardo's arm, squeezing it back. "I know, bro. I know."

* * *

April Jones was used to late night phone calls, or even the crack of dawn phone calls. Or any other kind of phone calls most people would have been irritated with. It was just one of the things that came from the privilege of having the turtles in her life. One that she wouldn't trade for anything. At first when she'd met the turtles they had seemed strange, and she'd been wary. Michelangelo had been so over enthusiastic... excited about knowing her. And when they had bummed at her apartment while the foot soldiers had been storming the sewers she had found her home quite claustrophobic. It really was too small for four turtles, one rat and one human. But when the turtles had opened up their home with her when they'd returned to New York after the horrible day where Leonardo had nearly lost his life April's bonds with the turtles had strengthened into an unbreakable bond that stay strong for the rest of their lives.

She had seen many changes in the turtles, and had come to look at them all as the younger brothers she had never had. It had even been through the turtles that she'd met her husband. Casey. Though he could be impulsive and reckless at times, and if it hadn't been for the turtles she never would have dreamed herself with a such a man, but she knew she was very lucky. And over the last few years she was very happy for the red banded turtle in particular. His relationship with Elizabeth seemed to be growing, and he himself had changed. He seemed to keep a better hold on his temper, his self control had never been better and he had taken the role as parent to Elizabeth's daughter to heart, as if he weren't her adoptive parent, but she really was his own. She was thrilled for Raphael. She had known that the turtles would probably never have the chance to find someone like Elizabeth. The thought of someone looking past their green skin and shells seemed almost impossible. But Elizabeth was a kind soul, one that didn't look at the turtles with compassion and pity, but with look of pure love and joy, and honor at being able to know them. The same feelings that April and Casey felt towards their green friends. April and Elizabeth had formed a tight friendship over the last few years and April fondly looked at Akemi as her adopted niece, the thought bringing a smile to her face, remembering the day at the hospital. Elizabeth had been terrified, squeezing the red head's hand as the doctor had ordered her to push. And then... as if by some miracle Akemi had been there. Dark curls plastered to her head, screaming at the top of her lungs. Elizabeth had leaned back against her pillows exhausted, panting, face covered in sweat, but she had the glow of a proud mother. After that... Elizabeth had really taken a liking to April and the women often enjoyed each other's company while the guys, with Casey, went out on patrol.

April fumbled around in the dark, reaching for the phone that was ringing on her bedside table, her fingers finally finding the small object she desired and she flipped it open. Leonardo's name was flashing across the screen and April found her mouth pulling down into a frown. Considering the time of day, and who it was this wasn't good. If it had something to do with something technological it would have been Donatello calling her, or even an invitation down to the lair it would be Michelangelo sounding over enthusiastic and breathless with excitement as always. If it was Raphael wanting to hang out with Casey he would call Casey directly. Trouble calls came from Leonardo. April was immediately awake and sat up answering the call. "Leonardo?"

"April, have you seen Michelangelo?"

"Mikey? No I haven't."

She could almost feel Leonardo's anxiety on the other side of the phone. "Leonardo, what is it?"

"He's missing. He went to a comic convention and never came home. His shell cell isn't transmitting - we traced it back to where it malfunctioned. But he isn't there."

"Do you guys have any idea on what could have happened?" April swung her legs off the bed, grabbing her robe and slippers. Heading for the bathroom so as not to wake Casey.

"No, the only thing we found... " Leo trailed off as if not sure he should tell her.

"What?" April asked impatiently.

"Blood, April. There was blood in the alley. And a lot of it."

April felt her breath catch in his throat. Mikey. Oh no! Not Mikey! April couldn't bear the thought of something happening to the youngest turtle. His bright blue eyes swimming with excitement about the newest video game or comic book finally being released, his enthusiasm over a pizza she and Casey brought down. He had always seemed the most innocent, the most light hearted of the turtles. For someone to hurt him made April feel sick.

"April? You there?"

April started, realizing Leonardo had kept talking while she'd been sinking into a pool of horror for the youngest turtle. "Yeah, sorry, Leo. What was that?"

She heard him draw a sharp breath. "Can you and Casey keep looking? It's getting too dangerous for us to stay out here - it'll be light soon. Don wants to go back and do some research into some scientific labs, see if he can find anything on the video surveillance there and maybe into the foot headquarters too."

"Of course, Leo. I'll get Casey up - we'll start looking right away. Where are you guys?"

Leo gave her the address to where they had found what few clues they had and then with a quick. "Thanks, April," there was a click and he ended the call.

April sat on the edge of the toilet for a minute holding the quiet cell phone in her hand, her fingers trembling around the casing. Then she got up and hurried back to the bedroom, they just had to find Michelangelo. The thought of never seeing him again was not acceptable.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey everyone. I hope everyone has had a good week. And I hope that everyone has a good week this next week as well with the holidays. I know it's a busy time of year for everyone. So travel safely and enjoy this time of year. Thank you again for those who take the time to review. With my computer still out of commission writing is hard for me to do. So I might not be able to update for a couple weeks. I appreciate your understanding in this and I do apologize. I wish everyone a joyous holiday and a wonderful weekend. I will update again as soon as I can. **

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Introductions**

She felt stiff and sore, and for the life of her couldn't figure out why she was slumped over the kitchen table. It wasn't at all comfortable. The kink in her neck and the ache in her shoulders and back told her that falling asleep at the kitchen table had definitely not been a great idea, and the deep stiffness told her that she would be stiff and sore for a couple hours at least. She squinted her eyes, glaring at her wrist watch but couldn't bring the numbers into focus. She sighed and turned towards the larger clock hanging on the kitchen wall forcing her eyes to focus until she was able to make out the numbers there. It was after eleven already? She sighed, stretching and slowly stood up testing the strength of her legs as she forced them to support her body, leaning against the table as her body slowly seemed to come awake one part at a time. As she stretched her arms up over her head her shoulders popped and her long blonde curls fell messily around her shoulders. She ran her fingers through the tangles, jerking them out impatiently and sighed.

She wasn't sure when the words on the page had started to run together, to not make sense. When she'd had to read the same sentence time and time again and still had not taken in a single word. She still had no idea what Buddy was proposing with this business deal. It was all so complicated and far more above her head than she could have imagined. She knew that her biggest job during the meeting would be listening quietly as Buddy proposed his offer to this smaller company that had a promising future, and make everyone more comfortable during the meeting by offering coffee or tea or anything else anyone would like to drink. She was silently grateful for that. If she had to remember all those numbers and numerous ideas Buddy had to expand the company and really make it profitable she was sure her head would explode. She would just quietly slip more papers for Buddy to go over as the meeting progressed.

Melinda rubbed the back of her neck as she automatically went over to the fridge and pulled out a gallon of milk, it was halfway gone. Now that she looked in there - there really wasn't much. A few slices of bread, some tired old lettuce, some eggs, a tablespoon of butter, and a slice of cheese. She sighed, she would have to go to the grocery store today. She was sure that the giant turtle would...

Her eyes widened. The turtle. She'd almost completely forgotten all about it. Had it just been a really weird dream from an overtaxed mind that had made her sleep so deeply that she would dream about a giant turtle that had been injured in the alley? Putting the milk down on the counter she walked out of the kitchen on her tip toes, trying to be as quiet as she could despite the old aged wood that would creak when she stepped on the loose board right in the middle of the floor. She mentally winced as it did so now.

To her relief the sound of the tired old wood groaning under her weight did nothing to disturb anything in the room. It was almost as if it were empty, except for herself. She bit her lip and made her way around the couch and was surprised to see the turtle still there. So it hadn't been a dream. There really was a giant five foot tall turtle sleeping on her couch. Melinda knelt, lifting the bandage on the turtle's head to make sure the stitches were still in place. But as her fingers brushed his strange leathery skin the turtle stirred, those impossibly bright blue eyes one again opening in confusion and pain. Melinda drew back not at all sure how this turtle would take to her doctoring it.

The creature's blue eyes darted around her small apartment, taking in her barely decorated walls, her rather tired looking chairs, the small TV, the hall to the bedroom and bathroom and the small little kitchen before landing on her again. He shrank back a little and Melinda drew back not wanting to make him uncomfortable. She knew it had to be strange for him to wake up in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar face.

He pressed up against the back of her couch, his large impressive shell making the cushions sag a little under its weight. Melinda tried a small smile. "Hey there... how you feeling this morning?"

She kept her voice deliberately soft and gentle, knowing that such tones were best in calming terrified and cornered animals, and he was cornered, injured, and had to be terrified. The last thing she needed was for him to injure himself further - or her. She swallowed hard, trying to force back her own fear and confusion at this giant turtle. Swallowing her questions about how he had ended up in the alley behind her apartment, or how he'd come to be such a giant turtle in the first place.

He had spoken last night. She was sure of it. If he really was here, and the fact that he was still lying on her couch was proof of that surely she couldn't have imagined him actually talking to her, though she hadn't understood what he'd said she was sure he had spoken. A foreign language maybe? Maybe he couldn't understand english?

What would Christine do? Melinda thought desperately of her younger sister. She knew that Christine wouldn't be afraid - if she were in Melinda's shoes she would have readily cared for this giant turtle, probably given it a name and a bed in her room. Melinda almost smile at the thought. Christine had been bringing home animals for as long as she could remember. Christine's mother would often toss the toads, snakes, and turtles back into the grass or pond and Christine would get a spanking for bringing them into the house. Should she call Christine? Ask her what turtles ate? But what would Christine think if she did? Christine knew perfectly well that Melinda did not care for pets. So to start asking her questions about such things would raise suspicion. Christine had often tried to coax Melinda into buying a guard dog - fretting because Melinda lived alone in the big city with all the gangs and in this part of town you couldn't be too careful. But Melinda had always waved off her sister's worries. She could take care of herself. But that was beside the point - Melinda really had no idea how to care for this giant turtle that was now in her living room on her couch staring at her with terrified big blue eyes.

He shifted a little and then jerked in surprise looking at his arm as if just noticing for the first time that it was hurt. His eyes snapped back to her face and widened. "W... Who are you? Where am I?"

So he really could speak. And English too.

"My name is Melinda, you are in my home. I found you outside in the alley."

He shifted looking decidedly uneasy. Melinda had a feeling that even without those stick like weapons she'd found with him last night this turtle was a dangerous creature. And she was suddenly uncertain as to whether bringing him to her home had really been the right thing to do. She had no idea of his temperament. She knew that even the most friendliest of animals under most circumstances could be very dangerous when injured and cornered. She saw his eyes dart around the small apartment looking for an exit.

"The front door is that one," Melinda said pointing to the door. "But I suppose you'll want your things."

His eyes snapped back to her face again, his eyes narrowing marginally.

Melinda bit her lip. "Is there someone we should call? Do you have... an owner?"

Something in his eyes shifted and she saw his shoulders stiffen, and she knew right away she had offended this giant turtle. His eyes, which had been bright with confusion and pain before were darker now in anger, and Melinda felt a cold shiver of fear run up her spine.

"I suppose... are you hungry?" She asked softly, trying another tactic. Surely she could at least feed this poor thing before it left. It shouldn't be running around with nothing in its system after losing all that blood.

He stared at her for several long seconds which felt like hours to Melinda, his icy cold blue eyes were penetrating hers. Then very slowly as if still sizing her up, debating on whether or not she was worth the trouble of really confronting he nodded.

"I... I don't have much food. But how about some... " She ran through her list of food quickly through her mind once more. "Eggs... and toast." He seemed human enough - surely if he could talk he wouldn't be living on turtle pellets. If he did she supposed she could make do with some tired old lettuce and run to the pet store about a dozen blocks away.

"Sounds... sounds great... thanks." The turtle said never once taking his eyes off hers.

Melinda felt some of the tension ease as he finally looked away from her, touching the crisp white bandage and wooden sticks on his arm.

"I'll get those started for you. I'll just be a minute ok, um... " She looked at him, suddenly not sure what to call him. Not sure if he had a name but calling him turtle seemed rude somehow.

His eyes snapped back up to meet hers again, but they were softer and seemed lost somehow. There was a sadness in them that tugged at her heart. Some instinct wanted to reach out and comfort this giant turtle despite her initial fear and the cold glare he'd hit her with. He met her eyes only for a minute then looked back down at his hands, running a finger over the bandage. There was something in his movements that seemed... uncertain.

Melinda frowned a little and crouched down so that she could see up into his face. "You alright?"

She saw his eyes fixed on his green three fingered hand. He looked back up at her. His eyes darting between hers, searching for answers there that she didn't have. Melinda felt another pang as those sad eyes locked onto hers.

Boldly she reached out, gently placing a hand on his tightly bound arm. He pulled back but she didn't let go. "Isn't there someone I can call for you? A family? Someone?"

He shifted a little on the couch, the old springs groaning in protest under his weight. He stared at the floor, as if really trying to come to a decision about something before looking at her once more.

"I don't know. I don't remember anything."

* * *

Raph growled pacing back and forth across the lair floor. Donatello had insisted on going home to get some more equipment that could possibly help them find their missing brother. Raphael was frustrated. He didn't like waiting. Waiting wasn't something he'd ever been good at. Raphael liked action. Action meant doing something. Action meant getting somewhere. Action meant finding his missing brother! Just sitting down here waiting for night was the most frustrating thing! What if someone had him? What if someone had put him in a cage? Was trying to dissect him right now?!

"We gotta go find 'im!" Raph growled.

Leonardo sighed patiently, he'd already gone into Splinter and had given him an update on what they'd found and the two had discussed this evening's search for their missing son and brother as soon as it was safe for the three of them to venture to again. He could understand Raphael's impatience, he didn't like this anymore than Raphael did. But he also knew that it was too dangerous for them to go searching for their missing brother in the middle of the day. "Raph, it's too dangerous. We have to wait until nightfall."

Leonardo's seeming calm demeanor only seemed to enrage his hot headed brother further. "He's out dere somewhere! Maybe 'urt! BAD!"

"You think I don't know that?" Leo snapped back, glaring right back at his brother. His own worry and inaction were making him just as on edge as Raphael. He was trying to be patient, but if something had happened to Michelangelo... he didn't know what he'd do if he were unable to bring his baby brother home. "But we won't be doing any good to him if we get caught too! There's too much we don't know. We don't know who took him or why. We don't know what happened. We need more to go on! April and Casey will call when they find out something. We have to sit still."

Raph growled and began to pace again. Sitting still. Leonardo sounded more and more like Splinter every day. He really was turning into Splinter Jr. How could he be so calm when Mikey was out there somewhere?!

April and Casey were out searching for more clues as they promised. Hoping to find some sign as to what had happened to their missing brother. They had started back at the convention to see if they could find anything there. April had gotten used to sneaking into the security rooms to get security tapes while Casey created a distraction. But Raphael had serious doubts that Michelangelo would have let himself be caught on security tapes. He was ninja, he knew how to stay out of the spotlight. Even at a costumed comic convention.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump and turn with a growl. He met the dark brown eyes of his older brother. "Raph, we'll find him I promise. We won't stop until we do. You know that right?"

"I know, Leo. I jus' want da chucklehead 'ome."

"I know, Raph. And we will, we'll bring him home."

* * *

Elizabeth bit her lip as she cut the red Jell-O into squares and very carefully began to pull them out of the large dish and into a tupperware dish, lining the outer edges before filling the middle and then following the same pattern over and over until the Jell-O filled the whole thing. She screwed the lid on, careful not to squish the Jell-O squares within and put it in the fridge.

She was so worried. And she knew that the brothers were as well. Raphael hadn't come to her last night. He hadn't gone to bed at all. She knew that Leonardo would make Raphael go get some sleep before they headed out later that evening to search for their brother again. When Elizabeth had heard the turtles come home, she'd waited, expectant. But Raphael had never come up, and only a couple minutes after their return she'd heard him taking out his frustration on a punching bag in the dojo. She'd waited for a while then had quietly headed downstairs, searching out the blue banded turtle. She'd heard him in Master Splinter's quarters, talking softly, his voice tight with tension and strained with worry. She knew then that whatever had happened, it wasn't good, and Michelangelo wasn't home.

Donatello's lab door had been shut, indicating the purple banded turtle was at work and didn't want to be disturbed, so Elizabeth had done the only thing she could think of. She'd headed to the kitchen to put on some tea for the blue banded turtle knowing that Raphael would be unapproachable until he calmed down and if she'd want answers Leonardo would be the one to get them from.

She hadn't had to wait too long. Less than ten minutes later, Leonardo had indeed come to the kitchen to fix himself some tea. He'd forced a smile but she'd seen through the strain that even if she didn't know Leonardo as well as she did she could've seen through the mask that was cracking around him. He'd told her what they'd found. The crumbling bricks, and the alarming amount of blood.

Elizabeth bit her lip, remembering the conversation.

_"How do you know it was his blood?"_

_"It is."_

_"Leonardo, there are so many muggings out there a day it could have been anybody's." _

_"No, Elizabeth. I'm almost 100% sure it was Michelangelo's." _

_"How do you know that?"_

_"Don said the blood is too thin to be human's - our blood is thinner than human's." _

_"That doesn't mean... " _

_"And, because of this... " _

_Leonardo had then held out some strands of familiar silky orange material that made Elizabeth gasp. She understood now. Leonardo knew it was there because of this. They were from Michelangelo's mask._

Elizabeth felt a tear make it's way free and quickly brushed it away. She had to be strong for the guys. For Mikey. They would bring him home. She knew they would. She just hoped it would be soon. The lair just wasn't the same without Michelangelo hear. It was too quiet, and the brothers just seemed so out of sorts. None of them were going about with their usual activities. She glanced towards the brothers again, Raphael was still pacing. And Leonardo was leaning up against the wall outside Don's lab, waiting for any results Don might have on their missing brother, any news he might have found from breaking into scientific labs. They were both so tense.

Elizabeth bit her lip, she knew their routines as well as they did now. It seemed so out of sorts. Leonardo was usually coming in for an early afternoon tea by now, and Raphael would just be finishing up his hour workout with his dummy and post. He'd kiss her quickly then head for the shower to get cleaned up while Akemi tried to follow him in and then cried outside the bathroom door. She'd had a habit of playing in the toilet lately, or the shower. Anything with running water she'd seemed fascinated by. If you turned around and Akemi wasn't around, you could usually find her trying to splash her hands in the toilet.

Donatello had finally put a lock on top of the bathroom door that everyone knew to lock if they weren't in there. Sometimes Michelangelo left it open on purpose because he found the whole thing hilarious. Elizabeth hadn't appreciated that because she was the one who had to pull her dripping daughter's hands out of the toilet and get her cleaned up.

Donatello hadn't appreciated it either, especially since Akemi had gotten delight from watching things go flush down the toilet and would throw anything and everything she could get her small hands on, toss it into the toilet bowl and flush the lever watching it spin around and around until it was sucked into the hole. It hadn't been a real problem until Akemi had started flushing bigger things down the toilet and had jammed it up. Donatello had had to take the whole toilet apart to get Michelangelo's action figures, the keys to the battleshell that someone had left within Akemi's reach, a few legos, and wads of toilet paper out of the toilet. He had told Michelangelo that if he did that again then he would be the one pulling out the soaking wet toilet paper and other items Akemi had joyfully decided to flush. Michelangelo had been pretty good about keeping that door locked ever since.

But Akemi had caught on to that, and Elizabeth had caught her just the day before Michelangelo had disappeared pushing a chair towards the bathroom door so she could stand on it and unlock the lock so she could get in. Elizabeth had told Donatello about this and he was working on something more permanent, but all that had been put on hold when Michelangelo had gone missing.

Elizabeth washed her hands, though her fingers were still red from the Jell-O and she still had the blue and purple to cut and put into tupperware bowls, but that could wait for now. Akemi would be awake from her nap by now. Elizabeth wiped her hands on a towel and headed for the bedroom the turtles had set up for Akemi for when she'd gotten too old to sleep in the bedroom with Elizabeth and Raphael. Like her crib Michelangelo had taken deliberate care in painting the walls with pictures of realistic wolves in an amazing background. Elizabeth had stared at the walls for hours when she'd first seen the nursery, which had been upgraded to Akemi's room, and still doubted she'd seen every little detail Michelangelo had put into it. It was so beautiful.

Akemi's bedroom was fairly simple with second hand furniture that the turtles had sanded down and painted so it was just like new for her. Elizabeth had absolutely refused to let them paint them pink. She did not like pink. So the turtles had opted for white and red, which Elizabeth had deemed acceptable. April had given them a mattress for Akemi when they thought her old enough to have a big girl bed and Akemi delighted in jumping up and down on the mattress when she thought no one was looking.

Elizabeth smiled a little despite herself. Even with their simple things down here with the turtles instead of the extravagant and more expensive things she would have gotten with Elizabeth's ex-husband, Akemi seemed happy with what she had. And she delighted in spending time with her uncles. She still seemed particularly close to Leonardo and still spoke Japanese better than Elizabeth did. Leonardo still spoke in Japanese frequently to her and Akemi would parrot him. But she especially liked Michelangelo because he had toys.

In fact she'd taken one of his toys last week and they'd had quite the episode with it. After listening to Raphael read her Hansel and Gretel Akemi had begun to sprinkle bread crumbs all over the lair pretending to be Hansel. Elizabeth had scolded her and told her to go find something else to do besides making such a mess. She'd had a lot on her mind and had been finishing up dinner. Akemi had darted away with one of Michelangelo's action figures while Elizabeth had cleaned up the bread crumbs. Elizabeth shook her head - she had a lot on her mind, and so much to do, even with dessert already in the oven. She'd been making an Australian dessert, lamingtons, which she was very excited about though it was fairly simple. A pound cake rolled in chocolate frosting and then covered with coconut. But as she'd finished cleaning up the mess and returned to dice up the chicken for tacos she'd thought the sweet vanilla scent of the cake suddenly seemed off.

She'd wondered briefly if Donatello had been doing something in his lab to make the lair smell so funny. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened, and with Donatello it happened quite frequently. He was always coming up with some new invention he was just dying to try out or a new formula that had an important purpose for something. Elizabeth didn't always understand his explanations but she could always catch the excited gleam in his eye when he was on to something big.

But Donatello hadn't been leaning over his chemicals that night. He'd been sitting at his computer desk, one leg crossed over the other, a large book supported by his knees, his computer screen flashing with tons of data much faster than Elizabeth could make out. But he too paused when she opened his door and with a finger on the page of the book he'd been reading had asked. "Is something burning?"

And that was when Elizabeth had run back to the kitchen and pulled open the oven door to find Mikey's newest action figure head first in her pound cake, burnt to a crisp, the cake fallen, and dessert completely ruined.

Akemi had gotten a time out and a very stern talking to for that one for touching the oven. And when asked why she'd done it she said she had to stop the witch. Elizabeth hadn't felt like trying to make another pound cake so they'd gone without dessert that night, and nobody ate more than a few bites of dinner with the smell of burnt rubber still strong in the air.

Elizabeth still owed Michelangelo a new action figure too. She hadn't had the time to go up and get it now. She felt her stomach clench. What if he never came home? What if something had really happened to him?

She had to force herself to stay calm. To believe in Raphael. In his brothers. They would find Michelangelo. They would bring him home. They wouldn't give up on him. He was family. She only hoped it was soon. She really missed him.

As Elizabeth left the kitchen her eyes were once again drawn to Raphael's pacing. She could see his shoulders tense with stress, his jaw clenched, and even from across the room she could see a muscle twitch in his well defined jaw.

She'd gotten used to Raphael's mood swings over these last three years. It still seemed incredible to her that it had been so long. She was happier than she ever thought she'd be. And being with Raphael was the most incredible gift she could've asked for. Of course when asked who she thought she'd marry when she was a little girl she never would've guessed that she'd fall in love with a five foot tall walking talking turtle. Who could've imagined such a thing? But having them in her life, all of them, she wouldn't trade that for anything. Even if it was because, even if only in a small way, she'd met Raphael because of Graham.

The thought of her ex-husband still made her blood go cold. He'd tried to kill her and Akemi not long after Akemi had been born, luckily for them both Raphael had gotten there when he had and pulled him off her. She'd gone to Graham's trial to testify. She had still looked very battered, but with her parent's and brother's support, and Raphael's back at home, she had swallowed her fear and Graham had been put away for attempted murder.

But that was all over with now. And she was happy. Her parents and brother had never met Raphael and his brothers, but she talked to them often and they could tell she was happy, so that made them happy. They had been begging her a lot lately to bring Akemi down to the small ranch for a few days and Elizabeth was having a hard time coming up with excuses. She hadn't talked to Raphael yet but she knew she couldn't put it off for much longer. She so rarely saw her parents and it would be nice to see them and she knew that they wanted to spend time with their only grandchild. And besides she wanted to meet this mystery girl her brother Sam kept talking about. But still, the thought of leaving Raphael, even if it were only for a few days made her heart ache. It was like tearing out a part of herself and forcing it to stay behind while she went to see her parents.

She wasn't at all sure how they would react upon seeing Raphael. She was sure they would understand. Her parents had always believed in not judging anyone by how they look. Never judge a book by it's cover. The problem was she wasn't sure how Raphael would react to her wanting to meet them – and now wasn't the time to discuss it with him. Not with Michelangelo missing.

She heard the bedroom door open upstairs and sighed inwardly. Sounds like Akemi was awake from her nap. Akemi's naps were getting shorter and shorter and the days seemed to get longer and longer with her energetic three year old. She loved Akemi, adored her, she'd do anything for her daughter. But she was feeling rather drawn the last few weeks, as if she couldn't muster up enough energy to keep up with her.

Akemi made her way down the last stair and made a beeline for Leonardo. Her usual routine. Leonardo had his back to her, but at the moment she leapt for him he turned and caught her in the air. Elizabeth shook her head. She'd seen Akemi and Leonardo do this time and time again, and it never ceased to amaze her that no matter what he was doing, no matter how distracted he seemed, he'd never once not caught Akemi when she'd thrown herself at him. Akemi giggled as Leonardo held her easily, his strong muscular arms enfolding her in an easy embrace. She leaned her head against his plastron, her long brown curls spilling over her shoulders and falling gently on her chest down to her waist, she crushed them against him as she leaned against him fully. She blinked contentedly.

Elizabeth smiled gently, leaning against the wall as she watched Leonardo cradle her daughter. She never would've guessed that the two would form such a close bond together. She and Leonardo hadn't exactly been friends when they first met. In fact Leonardo had been the one who'd been all too eager to send her back to Graham despite the fact that she'd been injured at the time. He'd been wary and cold and unfriendly towards her until she'd risked her life and had almost died trying to save Donatello's life. After that Leonardo's outlook towards her had changed completely. He'd not only been more friendly towards her but had protected her the same way he protected his brothers. Like one of the family. Elizabeth knew that that said a lot about how Leonardo felt about her.

But even though she and Leonardo had become good friends and he was like a brother to her, she never would've thought that he'd form such a close bond with Akemi. Especially with how awkward he'd been at first. He'd held her like she was a bomb about to go off and had always seemed completely uncomfortable with her. Eventually he had adjusted to the small new member of the family and as she'd gotten a little older Akemi had just gravitated towards him. There was just something about Leonardo's calm and over all quiet demeanor that seemed to attract Akemi to him. She never seemed to tire of him, though Elizabeth would take pity on him and would take her daughter from the turtle so he could go meditate or train.

Elizabeth watched the turtles quietly as Raphael and Leonardo talked in hushed voices, Akemi cradled against Leo's plastron, quite content.

He'd make a great father some day.

The thought crossed Elizabeth's mind before she could stop it. And immediately she felt pain shoot through her for these turtles. Could they even have kids? Would the mutation have any impact on that? And what were the chances of them finding someone if they were always down here, only going topside when they were on patrol? That was how she had met Raphael, but even then those chances were slim. Elizabeth knew that the outlook for such possibilities were slim and that there was a good chance Raphael would be the only one who would ever find the kind of relationship he and Elizabeth shared. How many people would really look beyond the green skin and shells to see just how incredible they were? In this world, Elizabeth knew the chances were slim, and that made her heart break for them all.


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry for the delay guys. Not having a computer was hard - but I got a new one for Christmas so hopefully that won't happen again but things have been very crazy the last couple of weeks. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and a great New Year. I was especially happy Christmas Even when I finished my original 2003 TMNT cross stitch design after six months of hard work. And of course for my laptop so I can work on this story more often. I will strive to do better to update every week. Work however is busy and I have set some yearly goals for myself that will take up some of my time after work during the weekdays but I will work hard to make sure you guys don't have to wait so long again. Thanks again for those who take the time to review. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekends. See you again soon.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Melinda knew she was well out of her depth. A giant turtle that could talk was more than most people could handle but the way he was looking at her with those impossible blue eyes, pleading for answers that she didn't have was something she wasn't sure she could really handle. She felt sorry for this poor creature and wanted to help it but had no idea how she could do that. It wasn't like she could just take him to the police station and see if someone had reported him missing. Someone was bound to notice a giant five foot bi-pedal turtle even in New York.

Surely he had to come from somewhere. There had to be someone who would miss him. But how could she contact them – he didn't have a collar. She frowned a little at herself. He was intelligent, more so than she'd expected when she'd first seen him. He wasn't an animal there was no way he'd be someone's pet with a tag around his neck letting her know where he should be returned. But she couldn't really see him carrying a wallet with identification in that either. The truth was that even if he did have someone that was looking for him, while he was with Melinda and with no way to contact each other it would be impossible to figure out who they were.

The turtle was watching her with a rather sad expression as if reading these thoughts on her face. Melinda forced herself to get a grip. She just had to help this turtle. She had no idea how she would help him, but she had to do it. But first things first. Her fridge was empty, and she was sure this turtle would be hungry again soon, she'd have to go to the store, and while she was at it she'd stop and the Laundromat and get his mask washed, hopefully the blood stain would be soaked out by now.

"I'm going to run a couple errands," she said standing up and brushing her pant legs as if they had been dirty. Her long blond hair fell over her shoulder and she brushed it back impatiently. "I'm just going to go change really quick and I'll go grab more food and supplies and we can figure out what to do when I get back. If there's someone looking for you we'll find them."

The turtle nodded, his blue eyes meeting hers before looking away again.

"There's a TV and some DVDs in that box," Melinda said, not sure why she was telling him this. Did he even know what TV was? "I'm afraid it isn't a big collection – but there's a few action movies in there. "

The turtle didn't move. Melinda sighed inwardly. She thought offering it a ball to play with would be degrading somehow.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," she promised. She headed for the bedroom, quickly kicked off the clothes she'd worn yesterday and threw them towards the full hamper. She really did need to make a trip to the laundry for her own things too. But that could wait.

Returning to the bathroom she splashed some cold water on her face, twisted her hair up and into a French twist and pinned it in place before brushing her teeth and wringing out the mask and sticking it hastily in her pocket. She grabbed her pocketbook and keys. She wasn't surprised to see that the turtle hadn't moved.

"I'll be back soon," she promised again. Then she slipped out closing and locking the door behind her.

* * *

"Shouldn't we be searchin' da pier or somet'in' babe?"

"Don't call me babe," April said as she nudged her husband in the side with her elbow. He smirked a little. His baby blue eyes twinkling, but April could see the underlying worry there. The worry that was reflected in her own eyes. She was worried, no more than that, she was terrified.

Leonardo had sounded so worried, she didn't deny that he had a right to be. When one of them went missing it was never because something amazing had happened to them. The last time one of them had gone missing without a trace it had been Donatello – and he'd almost been killed. He would have been if his brothers hadn't gotten there in time to save him. And there were times before that when they'd been captured, knocked unconscious, hurt badly, and had people try to dissect them. The thought of the happy go lucky Michelangelo alone without his brothers tied up to a lab table or put in a cage made April's heart ache.

She hated to think how the turtles would handle it if they never found their brother. She couldn't even imagine, she didn't want to imagine. The thought of never seeing Michelangelo again was unthinkable.

"Whoa," Casey's tone caught April off guard and pulled her out of her dark thoughts. She looked at him. He tightened his grip around her waist. "Dat's a lot of blood."

April followed Casey's eyes down the alley to the stain next to the overflowing dumpster and felt her heart lurch. Leonardo had said there was blood. That he thought Michelangelo was hurt. But she hadn't expected this. Not this much blood. It was more than she would've thought possible. She pulled out of Casey's grip, walking towards the puddle that was slowly drying, browning at the edges and flaking as she touched it gingerly.

She rubbed the dry blood off her fingers, watching the brown flakes slowly drift to the ground and blow away in the soft breeze. The middle was still red, though it too was slowly drying. She swallowed hard. In order to lose this much blood the orange banded turtle must've been hurt, and badly. But where would they take him? There was no sign of tire tracks, no extra blood on the walls, no drag lines indicating he'd been dragged away between two foot soldiers… so where was he?

"Ape?"

April closed her eyes and stood up, brushing her hands on her jeans. "We have to find him, Casey. We'll search the park, just in case. They have a small carnival there today. We can check that out. "

"An if he ain't there?"

"We don't stop looking until we find him," April said firmly. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly very cold. As if all the happiness in the world had just drained away.

Casey wrapped his arm around her and together they left the alley. "We'll find 'im Ape, we will."

"I know we will, Casey, I just… oh!"

The startled blonde who'd almost run into them stepped back, her bright blue eyes wide with shock. She was clutching her grocery bags, her long blonde curls bouncing around her face, a strand stuck to her flushed forehead, her breathing rather rushed, as if she'd been hurrying down the street with bags too heavy for her.

"S… sorry… " she stammered, taking a step back. "Didn't see you."

"No problem," Casey said with a smile.

The girl flinched away, clutching her paper bags to her chest a little tighter. She hurried around them, glancing back over her shoulder as she fumbled in her pocket, obviously hunting for her keys as she climbed the stoop to the building just next to the alley that the guys had found the blood in.

April's eyes narrowed as the keys got caught on something in the girl's pocket. The girl nearly lost her grip on the bags in her hands, but finally managed to pull out her keys, along with a flash of familiar, silky orange material. Glancing hastily at April and Casey again. The girl pushed the key into the lock and hurried inside, shutting the door behind her.

April pulled out her phone.

"What ya doin' babe?"

"Calling the guys – Mikey might be closer than we thought."

* * *

_Raphael's hand rubbed her bare back gently in a smoothing soothing sensation that still made Elizabeth's skin prickle with pleasure. She moved closer to him, although she was practically wound around him already, one leg over his, her head resting on his plastron, one arm draped over his stomach, her fingers lightly brushing the edge of his carapace enjoying the rough but oddly smooth texture of his shell. His warm familiar scent calmed her in a way she'd never felt with anyone before, she never felt safer than when she was in Raphael's arms. _

_She felt his muscles flex a little as he shifted beneath her finding a more comfortable position for himself, his other arm wrapped gently around her waist enfolding her in his powerful embrace. Elizabeth sighed content, closing her eyes a little then forcing them open again, enjoying the peace and stillness of the lair. It didn't come much these days – not with an energetic three year old who almost constantly demanded someone's attention. But she was asleep for now, which gave Elizabeth and Raphael something they had been craving for a while. Alone time. _

"_Marry me." _

_Elizabeth felt her muscles tense in an automatic reaction. She felt his hand pause and could almost feel his eyes shift to look at her in the dark. She shook her head against him and stiffened as if to pull away. He tightened his grip. _

"_No." _

_She felt him frown. She pushed herself up so she could look him in the face. He wasn't looking at her, he was looking at a spot on the ceiling, glaring at it as if it had insulted him. _

"_Raph, marriage is just a piece of paper." _

_He said nothing for almost a full minute then finally looked at her. "It's more den dat." _

_Elizabeth ran her finger along his jawline. "Hamato Raphael, you have me. I'm not going anywhere. Isn't that enough?" _

_His jaw never relaxed and his silence was her answer. _

Elizabeth ran the wet rag inside the drinking cup over the soapy basin full of hot water and bubbles, letting the memory run over and over inside her head as she washed the dinner dishes. She could hear Timon and Pumba singing Hakuna Matata in the living room again and Akemi's laughter as the warthog and meerkat went around eating bugs and teaching the young lion about a new way of life.

That night with Raphael seemed a lifetime ago. Had it really only been a few days, right before Michelangelo had gone missing when they'd been in bed together and Raphael had once again been asking her about marriage.

He'd been asking her an awful lot she'd noticed. He'd bring it up, Elizabeth would give him the same answer and he'd let the matter drop for a while then ask her again. But he seemed more determined on the matter lately. At first it had only been once every few months, and now it was at least once or twice every few weeks. As if he was hoping she'd suddenly change her answer.

Elizabeth let the water drain back into the full basin and rinsed out the cup setting it on a dish towel to dry as she reached for the next item that needed to be scrubbed.

Everything seemed to have changed in just a few days. With Michelangelo gone missing, and the large amount of blood Leonardo had told her that they'd found where Michelangelo's phone had last seemed to be working, Elizabeth felt as if the world had been turned upside down. As if life were suddenly so short and that she was blowing Raphael's proposal of marriage out of proportion.

It really wasn't that big a deal. It wasn't like she wasn't already living with the turtle. As if they weren't already with each other emotionally and physically. It wasn't as if they hadn't already crossed that line into intimacy. It wasn't as if there wasn't a connection between them. Elizabeth knew that there was a spark, a red hot flare that made her yearn for more most of the time. At times it seemed as if her nights weren't long enough for her to get her fill of Raphael. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her. So why was she so reluctant to say yes to a simple piece of paper that would make her his?

Elizabeth knew the reason if she were going to be honest with herself. She had been too eager the first time she'd wanted to get married. Had dove head first without testing the waters first. And the ring she'd once been so excited about, the ring she'd proudly showed off to her friends, the ring that had been as light as gorgeous as she'd felt, but after the wedding and being with Graham it seemed to weigh thousands of pounds. She'd never thought such a thing would be so heavy.

But this was Raphael – it was different. She'd been with him for three years. He'd never raised a hand to her – not even when they'd argued. She knew he had a temper, much like Graham had. And it wasn't like they never argued. They did. Elizabeth tried to be patient, and she knew that Raphael tried as well, but there were times she could see the irritation flickering in his eyes and he'd retreat to the dojo to release that frustration. Elizabeth had learned to stay away from him when he was like that. She knew he'd never use her as his punching bag like Graham used to do, but she could sense the storm and knew it was best to stay out of the way until Raphael had it out of his system.

Most of the time Elizabeth tried not to argue with Raphael. He was so good to her, really the best thing in her life besides her daughter. He and his brothers had opened up their home to her, Raphael was raising Akemi as if she were his own. Elizabeth couldn't have asked for a better family for her daughter to be raised with. She knew that a marriage with Raphael would be different from Graham. She didn't need to be reminded of their honor code and how they followed Bushido. It was something that she saw in them every time they went out and came home protecting and keeping watch over a city that would never truly accept them for who and what they were.

Elizabeth fumbled around in the soapy water for a minute, found what she was looking for and pulled out the stopper allowing the water to gurgle down the drain. She grabbed a fresh towel and began to dry the dishes so she could put them away. She rolled over the idea in her head, the idea of marriage.

Would it really be so terrible? Especially if she were marrying Raphael? She doubted it. In fact she rather liked the idea of being Mrs. Hamato – of knowing that Raphael was hers, and she his.

"'Lizbeth."

Elizabeth nearly dropped the plate she'd been holding, and spun, taking a defensive position, one that Raphael had taught her.

Raphael frowned a little. Then walked over taking the plate from her hand and put it back on the counter. "We're leavin' it's dark enough fer us ta take ta da rooftops. April an' Case t'ought dey saw somet'ing. We're gonna check it out."

Elizabeth swallowed hard. "Bring him home, Raph."

"We ain't comin' 'ome wit'out 'im." Raph said gruffly. Then without another word he left the kitchen. Elizabeth wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold. It didn't seem right without Raphael here - without all of them here. She heard more music from the movie playing in the living room and returned to the dishes. When Raphael asked her again, hopefully soon. Her answer would be different. Losing Michelangelo like this had made her realize something. Life was short and precious and she wasn't going to not marry the most incredible guy she had in her life. When he asked her again, she would say yes.

* * *

"We were 'ere las' night, fearless. Why are we 'ere again?" Raph growled as he leaned over the edge of the building glaring down at the dark alley and the offending blood stain that had long since dried and seemed to mock him, even though it was down there and he was up here. He tightened his hand on his sai, jaw clenched, eyes narrowed behind his mask.

Leo wasn't at all sure himself. When April had called she had told them to meet them at the same address they'd given her and Casey to start searching earlier. He would have thought that they would have expanded the search out – Michelangelo could be anywhere in the city. The fact that they were starting at the same point as they were last night made Leonardo feel as if time were wasting and they were right back at the beginning. It frustrated him, and he knew that Raphael was on edge as well.

Leonardo didn't like this anymore than Raphael or Donatello did. He didn't like that his baby brother was out there alone somewhere – going through who knows what kind of pain, humiliation, or torment at the hands of a capture. His volatile red banded brother hadn't been able to get rid of all his tension with the punching bag when they'd returned him this morning and Leonardo knew that Raphael was aching for a fight. To bash some heads. To get some answers. But they had to be patient, to see what Casey and April knew – if they knew anything.

Don jerked quite suddenly and pulled out his phone, he glanced briefly at the caller ID and then flipped the phone open. "April?" Leonardo's eyes snapped to his purple banded brother, frowning. Don listened for a long minute then nodded, though April couldn't see the gesture. "Right." He snapped the phone shut.

"They're in the van, let's go."

Don hurried to the fire escape, swiftly swinging down, landing on the ball of his feet in the alley, and avoiding the now dry blood he waited as Leonardo and Raphael landed silently behind him. The made their way through the shadows of the alley, moving like ghosts, no one who might have been looking out of their windows would have even noticed that they were there. They were ninja, they moved in the shadows.

April's worn out old van was waiting by the curb. Leonardo's eyes darted around the street, narrowing, searching for any sign of humans. Any sign the might be spotted there was none. He waves his brothers forward and Don and Raph hurried out hurrying to the van and slipped inside, Leonardo right after them, closing the door behind him.

"Ok, April, what have you found?"

"Guys, I think we might have found Mikey."


	7. Chapter 6

**Hey everyone. I know this is a really super late post - and overdue since I didn't post last week. Work has been especially busy for me and I'm working long hours and have had tons of after work things going on and writing time has been scarce. I worked especially hard to get this chapter done this weekend so I would have something to post. I apologize, but I'm afraid it might be like this for a little while anyway. Work is getting more hectic so my writing time will be less and less. I will always post as often as I can. Thank you again for those who take the time to review. I really appreciate it, it's so nice to hear from you. And now on to the story - have the turtles found their missing brother? Guess you'll have to wait and see. Thanks again. See you all again soon.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

"Where?!" Raphael was the first to respond to that as his hands went automatically to his sai, his voice tense, the question more of a demand for answers than anything else. His amber eyes flashed, his muscles tense, bunching underneath the dark green skin.

Leonardo held up his hand, stopping Raphael from launching out of the van before they had all the answers. "You sure, April?"

"Almost positive, Leo."

Raph growled his eyes narrowed.

"What did you find, April?"

"Casey and I were going to go search the park – check out the carnival. Just in case someone there had managed to get a hold of Michelangelo and wanted to make some money off of him."

Leo's jaw clenched and April saw a muscle jump. "Guys… I'm almost sure that he's close by. One of the residents here. We think he's in this apartment building."

"Why would he be in dere?" Raph snapped.

"Raph, I really don't know all the answers," April said meeting the red masked turtle's eyes steadily. "But we're pretty sure we saw Mikey's mask in one of the resident's pockets as she was heading inside."

"That's not a lot to go on, it could have been anything, April." Don said slowly, looking doubtful.

"We have to follow any lead, Don," Leonardo said softly, though he too looked strained and disappointed as if he wasn't sure if this really was much to go on.

"Well if it wasn't 'is mask it was somethin' that sure looked a lot like 'is mask," Casey said shifting on his seat, automatically grabbing a baseball bat and bringing it up and down, letting it smack against his palm.

"What do we do, Leo?" Don asked, turning to his brother.

Leo met Don's chocolate brown eyes for a minute before his eyes drifted to his amber eyed brother who glared back. He sighed. "We'll check it out. See if there's anything here. Thanks, April."

* * *

Melinda's arms ached as she put the groceries down on the kitchen table, grateful to have the heavy load out of her arms. She normally didn't buy so many groceries, but with her guest to feed – and obviously she couldn't just take him for take out food like she normally lived on with her hectic work schedule Melinda's grocery bill had been heftier than normal and the bags had been proof of that. By the time she'd gotten to the end of the block she was pretty sure that her arms were going to fall off and her breathing was hard after walking almost a mile and a half with the bags that had been weighing her down.

But it was worth it, she thought to herself as she'd made her way down the last block to her apartment building. She had to help this poor turtle creature and figure out what she was going to do with it. She really had no idea and for the first time in a long time she really felt as if she were out of her league on how to handle something.

She had always been the kind of person that would meet a situation head on and face it without hesitation. The kind of person that would dive head first into a project or new adventure just to see if she could beat the challenge. Growing up there had been almost nothing new that she'd been given the challenge of facing that she hadn't conquered. One of the exceptions had been horse back riding when her sister had challenged her to learn with her. She didn't understand what her sister saw in climbing up on a smelly horse and directing it with a couple pieces of leather and a bit of metal in its mouth.

But Melinda had never really been into sports if she were to be honest with herself. She'd been a book worm, she liked to swim and she liked to hike, but that was about the extent of her recreational activities. Of course out here in New York hiking wasn't the same as it had been back home. There weren't any mountains to climb here, no new heights to explore. No new challenges that needed to be overcome. There was Central Park of course, but Melinda didn't go there very often, she found it a bit intimidating, and when would she have the time anyway? And the predators in that park were a lot different than the predators where she had grown up were. Those predators were less complicated, the ones in New York were less predictable.

Melinda pulled the silky orange mask out of her pocket and put it down on the table next to the bags of groceries. It looked much better with it clean, the material almost glossy and soft to the touch. The color a rich bright orange that seemed so vivid now that it wasn't dulled with blood stains. There was a tear in the silky material just diagonal of one of the eye holes. The material was frayed there, a few silky strands slowly blowing back and forth in the warm apartment. Almost dancing. Melinda touched them, not wanting to rip them and further damage the mask. She bit her lip. Perhaps there was someplace that could mend this? She'd look online when she went back to work on Monday. Until then she'd keep it for him.

Speaking of the turtle, Melinda hadn't seen him on the couch. She frowned a little. Maybe he'd been lying down and she'd missed him? Making her way out of the kitchen she saw that the TV was on, the pictures illuminating the dark living room with an almost eerie glow. Melinda hit the light switch on the wall, bringing the room into brighter illumination. But her eyes hadn't deceived her, the turtle wasn't on the couch. She glanced automatically to the windows. But they were still closed and bolted, so he hadn't run out that way. Her apartment had been locked, and he didn't have a key – so he must still be in the apartment somewhere right?

Turning towards the bedroom she made her way down the short hall only to pause, the bathroom door was almost closed, but the lights were off. That wasn't how she'd left it. She slowly pushed the door open and turned on the light. The turtle was sitting with his shell against her tub, holding his head in his hands, his feet planted on the floor his legs pressed against his front, his elbows resting on his knees. His breathing sounded strained and Melinda could see his dark green skin glistening a little with what she suspected was sweat. Was he ill? Melinda was slightly alarmed by this. She had no idea what she would do with an ill turtle. Broken limbs she could set – but this could require an experienced doctor's… or in this case a veterinarian's care. But who would she call to try and explain this incredible situation to? Who could keep such a thing quiet?

As she hesitated in the doorway the turtle slowly lowered his hands and looked up at her, his pupils were wide and he blinked as he tried to adjust to the sudden change in lighting. Melinda got the feeling he'd been sitting in here for a while. She slowly made her way further into the bathroom and crouched down next to him.

"You alright?"

He simply looked at her for a minute then put his hands to his head again, she saw his fingers flex gingerly, softly against his temple as if trying to relieve some pressure there. The stark white bandage she'd applied earlier had a pink tinge to it now. Melinda frowned reaching for it. He flinched away.

"I need to check the stitches, you might have torn them."

"Don't."

She sat back on her heels a little, her frown deepening as she studied him with her eyes alone. He seemed more aware than he was this morning when she'd left him. Like he was starting to come to himself, and he was obviously in pain, and from the smell that was making her own stomach churn, she had a feeling the concussion was making him nauseated. But how did he know to use the toilet? Had someone… ? She let that thought trail off. She was learning not to underestimate this strange but incredible creature. He was clearly more than he appeared. If he could handle human food… maybe he could handle a simple pain killers? She had to try. His head had to be killing him, and from the way he was gently massaging it she could tell it was his way to ease the pain.

She stood up and went back to the kitchen, almost ripping apart her bags looking for the mild pain killers she'd picked up when she'd been at the store just in case. After searching through a couple of her bags she finally pulled out the small bottle of pills. She palmed a couple and grabbed a cup quickly filling it with water. She was sure if this creature knew what a toilet was for it would be smart enough to drink water out of a glass.

As she was heading back for the bathroom with her relief for the turtle the TV flickered, she paused, frowning as it flickered again and then went black just as all the lights in the apartment went out. She frowned and walked over to the window. The lights across the street were on. How strange.

* * *

"Got it, Leo. Lights and security systems are all down," Don said as his fingers flew over his laptop keyboard.

Raph turned from his pacing they'd been sitting up here for almost twenty minutes while Don had been working on the laptop for something that could be for nothing. He was frustrated and irritated. They should be out looking for their brother, storming the Foot tower and demanding that Karai release their brother.

It wasn't that he doubted April's word, but there was no guarantee that Michelangelo was here – or that it had been his mask that April had seen. It could have been anything. As much as Michelangelo drove him up the wall sometimes he was still his baby brother. The thought of never seeing him again was unthinkable. Raph didn't even want to know what he'd do if his baby brother never came home.

"Good job, Donny, let's move."

Donatello hastily stuffed his laptop back into his bag as Leonardo took the lead quickly scaling the fire escape and moving down to the alley below. Raphael's jaw clenched as Donatello quickly followed, with Raph tailing him.

The three brothers moved like wraiths in the alley quickly climbing up the fire escape and onto the roof of the building April had indicated. As Leonardo had directed the three brothers split up, they'd search for any indication that their brother was in any of the apartments or for the young woman April had described.

* * *

Melinda, glass of water and pills in hand headed back for the bathroom. If the lights didn't come back on in a few minutes she'd call the super. The janitor might have been messing with some of the wiring and made the whole building go dark. If that was the case she was sure he'd fix it, if he didn't… well Melinda had no intention of sleeping in a cold apartment all night. And she doubted it would be good for the creature either. Weren't turtles cold blooded?

A dark shadow moved in front of the window behind her, only for the briefest of moments before it disappeared. Even if Melinda had been watching she probably wouldn't have seen it.

The turtle hadn't moved from his position in front of her tub, at least Melinda didn't think he had. She squinted her eyes trying to get used to the pitch black to make out the large shape she knew was in there somewhere. She moved slowly into the bathroom, feeling the soft bathroom mats under her feet and then almost tripped over the leathery leg.

"Oh… " Melinda was a bit startled, and smiled a bit apologetically, something she was sure the turtle couldn't see and was glad it was dark to hide her embarrassment of almost stepping right on him. She crouched down next to him, settling herself on her knees.

"Here, " she reached out finding his elbow she pulled his hand down from his head and tried to put the pills in his hand. "Try taking these they should help with the pain."

The turtle pulled away from her touch, drawing his legs up closer to himself. Melinda frowned in frustration. "I'm not trying to hurt you I'm trying to help. Please." She reached out for him again and felt him flinch away. What had gotten into this turtle anyway? He hadn't been flinching away from her this morning before she'd left on her errands. Now he was acting as if he was expecting her to brandish a gun at his head.

Rolling her eyes she grabbed his wrist and firmly put the pills into his hand and set the cup of water down next to him, she hoped anyway it was hard to tell in the blackness. She slid back a couple feet so as not to press him. He was obviously uncomfortable with her being so close to him. She got up slowly and headed back to the kitchen. If she left that milk out it would spoil, and she should put the eggs away too.

What was she going to do with this turtle on Monday? Her work schedule was hectic and with this big meeting coming up it was even more so. Could she really just let this turtle stay in her apartment while she was at work all day? She sighed she really hadn't thought this through. She was in way over her head. It was at times like these she wished Christine was closer. Christine would understand. Her happy go lucky full of life sister would have been happy to come over and keep an eye on the turtle while Melinda went to work.

Melinda grabbed the milk and put it in the fridge, frowning when it too was dark. She sighed. She had to call the super, she really didn't need her groceries to spoil because the janitor had made the power go out. Putting the milk back down on the table she grabbed her purse, pulled out her cell phone and began searching for a place in her small apartment where she could get a signal.

* * *

"Anything?" Leonardo asked of his brothers five minutes later when they met back on the roof.

Donatello shook his head. Leonardo looked at his red masked brother. "Raph?"

"T'ink I found da girl April was talkin' 'bout. Fits da description. She's on da ground floor. Last apartment on da south side."

"Any sign of Mikey?"

"Didn't see 'im. Not sure if he's in dere or not."

Leo frowned. They couldn't just go breaking into a strange apartment hoping to find their brother and risking being seen by someone, especially without further information. His other brothers seemed to sense this as well.

Leonardo sighed. "We'll have April look further into this girl, maybe scope the apartment and see if there's any sign of Mikey."

Disappointment and frustration hung over the turtles.

"So what now, fearless?"

"We keep searching. We'll expand the search." Leo glanced around the building his muscles tense."Donny."

Donatello nodded and pulled out his laptop once again, a few short minutes later the lights in the building came back on. Don slipped the laptop back into the bag and slid the strap over his shoulder.

"Come on we're wasting time," Leo said a bit stiffly. He led the way, his brothers following as they disappeared, three shadows into the night.

* * *

Elizabeth waited anxiously for the turtles return, hoping that Michelangelo would be with them tonight. That they would bring him home. Raphael said that they might have found him, and if they had they would bring him home. They just had to. But what kind of shape would he be in? Would he be injured? Battered and broken?

Elizabeth didn't even want to think about that. He would be ok. He had to be. Mikey was a fighter, she had seen him springing around the dojo like he had wire springs on his feet as he laughed joyfully while easily taunting his red banded brother and goading him until Raphael's temper snapped and Raphael lost all control whatsoever, leaving him more vulnerable to attack and easier for Michelangelo to get the advantage. His laughter was contagious and Elizabeth would find herself smiling despite Raphael's obvious frustration with his brother.

Elizabeth had put Akemi to bed several hours ago but was too anxious to go to bed herself. She'd tried reading – or even trying to meditate as she saw Leonardo do when he had to clear his mind of thoughts that seemed to bother him. Whether it be after a particularly hard fight that night while out on patrol or after he got home when he and Raphael had squabbled and he'd run off his initial anger but felt he still needed to clear his head of some thoughts that the run couldn't burn away. Neither had worked, the story had failed to draw her into its pages and try as she might the spiritual plane had seemed just out of her reach tonight.

So she sat on the tired old couch staring at the TV screen as the newscaster babbled on about crime after crime that never seemed to end here in New York City. She wasn't really paying attention to this either. A cup of tea was clasped between her hands, the steam rising up to caress her face like an old friend, the familiar warm aroma made her relax like nothing else had tonight. She could understand now while Leonardo liked this blend so much.

She glanced at the small clock as the news broadcast ended and then began flipping through channels hoping to find something else that might capture her attention until Raphael got home. Until all the brothers got home, Michelangelo with them. She was sure it wouldn't be too much longer now. Leonardo always made sure that they were back before sunrise, though she noted that wouldn't be for another few hours. But if they had found him surely they'd come back right away wouldn't they? Or Raphael would call to let her know that they found them. She knew that he knew she was just as worried about the orange masked turtle as he and his brothers were. Surely he wouldn't leave her in suspense. Unless he was too busy trying to help his brothers care for his injured little brother.

Elizabeth put the cup of tea down, the smell of the herbal tea no longer soothing, the warmth leaving her fingertips making her suddenly feel very cold. She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, her heart thudding painfully against her ribs. She'd stay here. She'd wait - no matter what the outcome of the night might be.

* * *

The sun was just coming up when the manhole cover slipped back into place so smoothly that you never would have known it had been disturbed. Leonardo dropped down next to his waiting brothers. They were all tired and frustrated after a long night with very little results, and still no closer to finding their missing brother. The tension radiating off Raphael was almost touchable and Donatello seemed anxious to get back to the lair and do more researching, hoping to look into some private collectors who might have gotten a hold of Michelangelo, someone who might be keeping his existence a secret. Leonardo shuddered at the thought of his baby brother being kept in a cage like some kind of pet. But he knew that they would have to explore every possibility. That if they were to find their brother it was best to search every corner.

Leonardo would call April later when it wasn't so early and ask her to investigate the apartment building further if she could. See if she could find any sure sign that Michelangelo was in there, and if there was – they would go back tonight and reclaim what was theirs.

But what Leonardo couldn't figure out was if Michelangelo was in that apartment, why hadn't he come home? Unless she was keeping him there against his will.

None of them felt like talking as they made their way home. The night had been disappointing. Leonardo had the feeling that their brother was close, but just out of reach of their grip, and that was more frustrating than anything else.

Donatello quietly reached up and pulled the pipe, opening the entrance to their sewer home. The brothers stepped in. The first thing Leonardo noticed was the TVs were on and Elizabeth was on the couch. It was obvious she'd been there for a while, probably waiting up for them, but she'd lost the battle to stay awake. Her head was resting on the arm rest and her legs curled up against her body in what had to be a very uncomfortable position.

Raphael noticed this too and he headed for the couch, picking up the remote and turning off the TV before reaching for her. As he touched her, her eyes snapped open. She blinked and was suddenly wide awake.

"Raph, did you find him?"

Raph shook his head. "No, we didn't find 'im 'Lizbeth."

Elizabeth's disappointment was as great as theirs had been. "Did you find anything?" She looked back at Leonardo, standing up off the couch and wrapping her arms around her thin frame.

"We really don't have that much to go on," Leonardo admitted. "April thought he might be in the apartment building we found the blood next to. But there wasn't enough evidence for us to really investigate it too deeply."

Elizabeth's eyebrows narrowed. "Why would she think that?"

"T'ought a girl 'ad 'is mask."

Elizabeth's eyes widened. She looked back at Leonardo. "There weren't any signs of him?"

"We couldn't confirm whether he was or not. Don blacked out the building and we did a quick search but we didn't want to break into a strange apartment without solid proof of his being there. I was going to ask April if she could go out and scope out the actual apartment, look for signs that he might be there before we go breaking in."

"I can do it."

"No."

Elizabeth looked at Raphael who was glaring at her.

"Raph, it's not like I'm storming the Foot tower on my own, and I do know how to defend myself, but if April saw this girl, there's a good chance that she saw April too. She'd recognize her again – she's never seen me." She glanced back at Leonardo. "You said Donatello blacked out the building. I could tell her that the building has had some electrical problems and we need to check every apartment for problem spots. I could scope it out and see if Michelangelo is in there."

"'Lizbeth," Raph started, though he was obviously mulling the idea over, just as his brothers were.

"It's not a bad plan, Raph." Don said softly. "We could take the battle shell, stay nearby – she'd have her shell cell just in case she runs into trouble."

Raph looked at his girlfriend and saw the determination in her eyes. He nodded. "Ok, get dressed. I'll call April an' see if she can come down ta watch Akemi."

* * *

A few hours later, armed with her props from Donatello, her long brown hair pulled back into a simple ponytail and clad in blue jeans and a formal looking work shirt courtesy of Casey and tucked neatly into her jeans but pulled out just a little loosely at the waist line to make it look baggier than it was Elizabeth climbed the front stoop and looked at the names above the buzzer. Ted Stevens, June Sanderson, Steven Tyler, Megan Thompson, and Melinda Peterson all lived on the ground floor. She could avoid Ted, and Steven's apartments. From the location of the apartment she'd try that one first when she figured out which tenant it was that might be hiding Mikey.

Pulling out the lock pick Donatello had giving her, knowing it would be suspicious if she had to ring the buzzer to get into the building, Elizabeth worked for a few short minutes before the lock clicked and she pulled the door open. She shook her head. Donatello was a genius, she doubted there was anything he couldn't get into if he really wanted to. Keeping a firm grip on her "tools" Elizabeth made her way down the hall to the last apartment. Reading the number on the door she rang the buzzer.

It seemed to take several minutes before she heard the dead bolt slide back and the door finally opened. The girl who stood there was probably Elizabeth's age, if not a little younger. Her long blonde curls were framing her delicate face, her bright blue eyes were wide and looked a little wary, her slender shoulders were tense, her hand on the doorframe, as if to block Elizabeth's entrance.

"Yes?"

"Good morning, Miss Peterson. My name is Elizabeth, was called in this morning because I heard you folks had had some problems with the electricity last night. We're checking every apartment for problem wiring to make sure there's no sign of damaged wires in all the apartments, standard procedure for things like this. Mind if I have a look?"

Elizabeth watched as the girl shifted, suddenly looking uneasy. "This really isn't a good time."

"Sorry about that Miss Peterson, but is protocol. Wouldn't want a damaged wire to start a fire," Elizabeth persisted, hoping she didn't sound too pushy. She saw the girl's eyes waver.

"No, I suppose not." She slowly lowered her hand from the wall. "Please come in."

Elizabeth moved into the small apartment, her eyes roaming around for any clue that Michelangelo was here.

"Excuse me for just a minute, feel free to look around in the living room and kitchen, I have a… friend who's quite sick in the bathroom, I need to check on him."

Elizabeth nodded and watched as the girl headed down the short hall to where the bedroom and bathroom was. Her eyes roamed the apartment again. There were several boxes of ace bandages, a first aid kit, and a pair of scissors sitting on the coffee table. A few soiled pink cotton balls sat there as well. Elizabeth frowned walking further into the apartment, The couch didn't look too old but there were a couple of stains on the cushions. Elizabeth frowned reaching for them. They were dry and stiff, flaking a little under her touch. She didn't like it.

She made her way around the small living room, there was a small desk in the corner, but it was within view of the bathroom. Walking to it on cat's feet she glanced towards the bathroom once again before opening the drawers. The top one was filled with files, carefully alphabetized and marked with special tabs that were obviously important notes for this girl. The second drawer was just as helpful with a phone directory, and day planner.

Frustrated and anxious Elizabeth tried the third, but found it locked. She frowned and glancing down the hall again, her nerves tingling she quickly scanned the top of the desk, then lifted the soft leather covering and grinned when she found the key there. She slipped the key into the hole and twisted it, the lock gave and she opened the drawer. She felt her chest tighten and her stomach clench.

She reached in and drew out the mangled shell cell and the nunchucks she knew just as well as she knew Raph's sai, Don's bo, and Leonardo's katana. She slipped them into her bag hastily and closed the drawer, slipping the key back into place.

By the time Melinda came back a couple minutes later, Elizabeth was pretending to be putting some complicated wiring tools Don had given her for props back in her bag, burying Michelangelo's things beneath them.

"Any problems?"

"Doesn't look like it, at least not in here," Elizabeth said smoothly. "Should check the bedroom and bathroom."

"Listen, my friend is really sick. Perhaps you could come back a little later," Melinda said, putting her foot down as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"If there would be a better time for you, perhaps I could reschedule for tomorrow evening?"

"I'll have my super call you. Set up an appointment."

Elizabeth forced a smile. She knew that they would have to come back before this girl could call the super and find out that Elizabeth really didn't work for any electrical company because the super had never hired one. "You have a great rest of the day Miss Peterson." She grabbed her bag and left the apartment. She felt Melinda's eyes on her and forced herself to walk casually down the hall until she heard the click and lock of the dead bolt.

She walked out of the apartment, down the stoop and around the corner where Leonardo, Raphael, and Donatello were waiting for her return. She had the proof they needed. She'd found Michelangelo.


	8. Chapter 7

**Sorry everyone for the delay - yet again. I know I'm so bad. I'm trying I am work is crazy busy, I'm taking on the responsibilities of two people right now, my job and a girl who's having a baby and will be leaving and they won't be replacing her so these new things I'm learning are permanent and I'm just completely and utterly worn out after work. And the last couple of weekends have been crazy. I worked really hard to get this chapter done today. I hope you guys feel it was worth the wait. Thanks again for those who take the time to review. Know it's not Sunday but I'm just going to go ahead and post it tonight, Sundays have been busy lately too. Better do it before I forget. I will try to post again next week I promise. See you all soon.**

**Wareware wa hōkoku suru hitsuyō ga aru - We need to report  
**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

As soon as the door was closed all three turtles turned to her. "Well?"

"He's there. I'm sure of it."

"Did ya see 'im?"

"No." Elizabeth pulled her hair out of the ponytail and let her hair fall down her back as she unbuttoned the first couple buttons on the stiff shirt and opened up the collar a little.

"'Lizbeth… "

Elizabeth opened the bag and pulled out the things she knew the brothers needed for proof, the sad remains of Michelangelo's phone and his nunchucks. She felt the brothers collective breath as she handed the shell to Donatello and Leonardo took the nunchucks from her as if they were made of glass not wood.

"His phone is completely dead, Leo… " Don said after a few seconds of observation. "There was no way he could have used it to contact us… "

Leo ran his fingers over the silky material on his brother's weapons. Raph's dark green hand fell on Leonardo's shoulder and Leonardo's dark brown eyes snapped up to Raphael's face.

"We're gonna get 'im, Leo. We're gonna bring 'im 'ome."

"I know, Raph." Leonardo said as his eyes again fell to the weapons in his hands and Elizabeth felt her chest tighten at the pain and fear in his eyes for his brother. "I know."

"We'll have to come back after dark, too exposed to make a move now," Don reasoned.

"What? We ain't leavin' wit'out 'im!" Raph protested, glaring at his purple banded brother.

"Raphael, you know he's right," Elizabeth soothed putting a hand on his arm. His amber eyes snapped to her, burning. If she wasn't so used to the red masked turtle by now the look would have frightened her. Instead she met his gaze steadily and squeezed his arm. "Raph, you know he's right."

"He is," Leonardo agreed. His eyes lifted to Raph's. "We'll come back as soon as it's dark and we'll get him, Raph. We'll bring him home.

* * *

Melinda sighed looking at the strange turtle creature again as she tried in vain to concentrate on her work notes. She had to understand this meeting. But she'd been reading the same sentence for the last half an hour and still had no idea what she'd taken in. The fact that the turtle was perched on her couch, an ice pack to his aching head wound with the TV on rather loudly was not helping with her concentration, but she wasn't going to make him turn it off either. It had taken her hours to coax him out of the bathroom and even then he'd only left reluctantly, almost as if he'd been too afraid to get too far from the facility in case he needed it again.

Melinda had been worried about the poor thing getting dehydrated because he'd been so sick and refused to eat, but he'd finally accepted a soda, sipping at it cautiously as if she' poisoned it before giving it to him. Melinda couldn't help but feel a little insulted about that. Even after all she'd done for him she had the feeling he didn't trust her.

Melinda had been a little tense ever since that electrician had left, worried that more people would show up and someone would spot him and then what? How would she explain a five foot tall bi-pedal turtle? And what would they do to him?

She felt responsible for him now. She'd brought him into her home, saved his life. But now what? What if she needed a repair and the maintenance man came in and saw him? She ran her fingers through her blonde curls as she blew out an exasperated breath. Her life was suddenly very complicated. But she couldn't let this poor thing come to harm.

More loud laughter rang from the TV grating on Melinda's nerves. There had to be something less annoying that this old sitcom on TV, but the turtle seemed to have no interest in channel surfing. Melinda watched as Curly got smacked in the head for the fifteen time in less than half an hour and finally lost her patience. She had to find something else for this turtle to watch – or do. Maybe he'd like to read… he certainly seemed intelligent enough to have the brain capacity for such things. Or maybe she could see just how intelligent he was or see if there was something that could jog his memory and work on his hand eye coordination at the same time.

Pushing her meeting notes aside for now Melinda grabbed a package of crackers from the cupboard, something that would be easy on the turtle's stomach, and something she hoped could help coax him into eating something since he'd had no interest in eating all day. She sat down next to him and grabbed the remote from the coffee table where he'd left it. He didn't protest as she began to flip through the channels.

Corny sitcom after corny sitcom. Didn't the networks have anything better to come up with – something that was actually entertaining? Where were all the cute guys anyway? Melinda almost smiled. She'd long ago given up on her dreams that she'd travel to Hollywood and run into a cute movie star and they'd live in the land of happily ever after. There were no happily ever afters. They were all make believe stories that grown ups told their kids to keep them quiet at night.

"What's that?"

The turtle's question startled Melinda out of her thoughts and she looked at him and then in the direction he was looking. She almost laughed. Her old game systems were still in the box, half unpacked, one of the remotes dangling lazily out of the box as if it had climbed up and tried to escape but had grown too tired to continue and just hung on the side by the cord.

"My old game systems – used to play them all the time to help me relax after school growing up. My sister and I divided up all our old games and things for when we have families of our own. She wanted the board games, so I got the game system. Probably better this way really, she runs a ranch with her husband and now their guests can play the board games. The super only let's two people play at once, depending on the game of course."

The turtle's blue eyes snapped to her and then back to the box. Melinda grinned and got up, grabbing the box and put it down in front of him. She felt a little silly really. Surely this turtle hadn't seen a super before. The thought seemed, too out there to even comprehend.

She threw the lid onto the floor and pulled out the tired old gaming system. It had a black mark on it when Christine had dropped it, and was surprised it still worked after that. The lettering was slightly faded and there were a couple red sticky spots here and there. But she knew it still worked just fine.

The turtle was looking at the games. Upon seeing one he looked at her in surprise. "Really?"

"That game is harder than you'd think. I never did beat it." Melinda shook her head and grinned.

"Couldn't be that hard."

Melinda's eyebrows rose. "Oh really? And I suppose you're an expert at this game?"

He frowned. "I… don't remember."

Of course he didn't. He didn't remember his own name – why would he know anything about a silly Nintendo game? Melinda grabbed the game out of the box, and within a few minutes had the gaming system hooked up to the TV ready to play. She pushed the remote into his hands as the Disney logo came up the familiar music started.

"Ok, Mister Know It All… let's see what you've got."

* * *

Elizabeth was happy to get home and see her daughter, though she hadn't been gone very long. Still not having Michelangelo here reminded her just how lucky she was that their home was safe and secure and that her daughter would always be safe here. Akemi was again watching the Lion King and Elizabeth had the feeling that April had had it up to her neck with the Hakuna Matata song because Akemi loved that song and had gotten into the habit of playing that song over and over and over again when the DVD got to that part. Elizabeth was also sure that April had told Akemi to finish the movie so she could go take her nap because the DVD was still playing and Akemi was no where in sight. She'd gotten into the habit of hiding when the "N" word was mentioned. Elizabeth had found her daughter in some interesting places.

April seemed relieved to see them as well. "I'm glad you guys are back. Did you find him?"

"You were right, April." Elizabeth answered before the turtles could. "Mikey is in that apartment."

"Too risky for us to barge right in and get him. We'll go back after dark. Thanks, April."

"Of course," April said automatically. She looked at Elizabeth and Elizabeth could see the questions in her eyes that the turtles had had when she'd gotten into the Battle Shell.

"I didn't see him, April. But there was blood on the couch… and I found his weapons, and what's left of his shell cell."

"He better be ok, da bonehead," Raph growled. Elizabeth put her hand on his arm and his muscles twitched as if he'd shake her off but he seemed to restrain himself. Elizabeth frowned. Raphael never pushed her away. But he seemed so different. So sick with worry about his brother he wasn't acting like himself at all.

"He'll be ok, Raph," she tried to reassure him. "Just bring him home. We can help him through whatever happened."

Don headed for his lab, Elizabeth knew that he was going to get some medical supplies ready for their mission tonight, and to get the makeshift infirmary ready when they brought their injured brother home just in case he needed further doctoring. Elizabeth knew that no matter what Donatello would give his brother a thorough examination to see how bad his injuries were.

Raph pulled away from her and headed for the dojo to release some pent up energy before trying to grab a nap before they headed out again later tonight. Leo headed for Splinter's quarters to tell him exactly what they'd found, as was his custom. Elizabeth felt her stomach clench.

He's coming home. They'll bring him home. He'll be home tonight.

April's soft hand on her arm brought her back from her thoughts. "Think I saw Akemi heading towards Michelangelo's room."

Elizabeth nodded. "She loves his action figures – normally he'd tell her that they are in mint condition and… " she trailed off not having the strength to finish. It just wasn't the same without him.

April squeezed her arm. "They'll bring him home – they found him, you helped them find him. He'll come home."

Elizabeth gave April a tired grin. She wished she could believe that.

* * *

Melinda's hands were over her eyes, her legs pulled up to her chest, as she sat curled up next to the turtle, who, much to Melinda's surprise had really gotten into the game. Not only could he play – but he was an amazing player! He'd blown through the first six levels as if it were no harder than swatting a fly. He'd grinned triumphantly as he'd passed off the seventh level without a hitch and then had continued onto the eighth level. It had been the only level he'd had trouble with.

Melinda had grinned as he'd wiggled around on the couch, leaning his body weight this way and that as if it would help him control his character better. His tongue had poked out between his lips, his jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed as he did the level time and time again, finally beating it on the fourth try. He'd offered Melinda a go but she'd waved him off she was having more fun watching him play than actually playing herself, of course the ninth level was one she had never passed.

"WHOA! There's four of them?!" She could hear the frantic clicks of the buttons as the turtle pressed them as fast as he could. She separated her fingers a little to watch, unable to help herself. Four hyenas pounced on the lion and she covered her eyes again as she heard the familiar grunt of Simba's pain.

The triumphant crow of her guest had her head snapping up forgetting that she didn't think he'd get past this level and didn't know if she could stand to watch as he died time and time again like she always had.

"Halfway mark."

"WHAT?!" Melinda was shocked. "How did you find that?! I always got sent back to the beginning!"

The turtle grinned but didn't answer as he continued to fight hyena after hyena. Sometimes he won the battle without Simba gaining any injury – other times he wasn't so lucky and was sent back to the halfway mark as his life ended.

"You sure you've never played this before?"

"Not that I remember."

Melinda giggled as the turtle grinned his first grin at her. The fact that he didn't remember playing this before meant little – at least until he got his memories back. One thing was for sure this turtle was incredible. Melinda had enjoyed his narration as he'd made his way through the levels. Especially when he'd gotten to the waterfall and had started to grumble every time he fell in the water but when he'd finally figured out the best way to get up the waterfall and get to the monkey he'd started talking about secret moves and how the monkey was no match for his totally awesome playing skills. He was just as interesting as the game.

Melinda had remembered when she and Christine were younger and they'd play together, eventually they'd get into big fights and accuse the other of cheating as they fought and hollered. As she'd grown older and games had become scarce but a good source of tension relief for her – they would often turn into vivid swearing contests that her mother would have killed her for if she knew.

"GAH! LOOK OUT!"

The turtle jumped, then lifted the remote over his head as if he himself were prepared to jump right along with Simba as he fought to get away from the hoard of hyenas that were sitting below just waiting for him.

"That was close."

"Oh my gosh you are so going to die… " Melinda squirmed on her seat, watching him play. He grinned and leapt expertly over one hyena then turned and pounced on it in the next move, effectively taking it out while not getting a scratch in return.

Melinda got lost in the maze of caverns he steered the grown Simba through, completely losing track – but then, to her surprise he reached the end and roared. She looked at the turtle. "You freaking kidding me?! I could never beat that level!"

He grinned. She shook her head. Unbelievable. There was obviously more to this turtle than meets the eye. "Think you can beat Scar?"

He grinned flashing his white teeth. "Watch me."

* * *

This couldn't be the same turtle that she'd met two nights ago. It wasn't possible. He was so different than the turtle he'd been when he'd first woken. He seemed almost in his element now as he quickly and effectively beat all her "easier" games but then she'd put in Super Mario World and had put in a paddle for herself. She wasn't about to be shown up by any turtle. But she failed miserably at that when she ran into a bug with spikes as soon as she started the level. She had laughed and he had laughed with her. It was pleasant, warm and rich. Like a warm breeze on a summer's day or the way she felt when she drank a chocolate milk shake. She hadn't realized she'd gotten closer to the turtle until she'd bumped his arm as she'd shifted her weight, much like he had earlier when she tried to fly over a hole, bumping his arm distracted her and she fell down the hole making them both laugh again.

"Sorry about that." She said when they finally stopped laughing.

He shrugged. "No harm done – lost one of your lives though."

"Don't have much to spare either." She sighed.

He chuckled then brought both players into view on the main screen and gave her ten of his lives. "Here."

"You didn't have to do that," Melinda protested.

"And watch you die again and get a game over?" He teased.

Melinda shook her head. "Well thanks. Want a snack? In the mood for some popcorn myself."

To her surprise he nodded. It was his turn so that left Melinda free to go grab the bag and put it in the microwave. Maybe having a guest, even a turtle as a guest, wasn't so bad. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had so much fun. And she enjoyed his company. There was just something about him that was… nice.

* * *

Takeshi was having an extremely difficult week. It hadn't started out the best and he knew that his mistress was extremely angry with him. When he had taken a small group of Karai's best fighters out for patrol he'd never dreamed they'd find one of the turtles out on his own. They always traveled in groups. He had only ever seen one on his own once before, the leader of the turtles, and he had been fairly new then. The kappa had been a fierce fighter he had taken down fifty of the Shredder's men before he'd finally been taken down by the elite.

The turtle demons had frightened him at first. Especially since he'd already taken a heavy kick from the one in blue before he'd been forced to go and fight the other three, their rat master and the two humans the demons had befriended. It had been a fierce battle and he'd taken another hit that had left him with little memory of how fierce the other turtles were.

But it hadn't been long before they'd faced them again. Summoned by their master they'd battled the turtles on the roof of Foot tower. And he'd seen just how powerful these kappa were. But he was loyal, he'd picked his side, and the pay was good. He was proud to serve the Shredder, and when he was gone, Karai. Karai had let them know that if any of them tried to leave the foot they would be hunted down and destroyed. She'd been bitter and cruel ever since the Shredder had been destroyed. No one dared cross her.

Over the past seven years Takeshi had worked his way up the ranks of the foot. Replacing more experienced soldiers when they'd been injured in battle and trained harder and longer than most soldiers did. It made him a fierce and worthy opponent for most of Karai's soldiers. And it was after Karai had called him to her and told him his new position he realized that she'd noticed this. It wasn't handed to him on a silver platter of course, and he'd had to prove himself worthy of such a position.

He'd worked hard to prove his worth to her over the last year and she had seemed pleased with him, up until recently. He'd had to send a team out after a soldier who'd tried to leave the clan, his body had been removed after Karai had finished with him. No one would ever find it. Karai was nothing if not careful and would never have such things trail back to her or her company. It was sloppy and unbusiness like. Karai was just as good as the Shredder had been when it came to keeping up appearances.

Karai was still angry that the little worm had gotten away in the first place and had blamed him for not keeping a better eye on those under his watch. No one was disloyal to the foot clan. Takeshi had thought the week had turned around when he'd spotted the lone turtle. It had been glorious. The turtle had caught onto the fact that they were there pretty fast. Takeshi had been ahead and had seen the turtle reach for his belt. He'd pulled out one of their communication devices.

A quick swipe from his katana and the turtle was bleeding the phone falling and cracking. The turtle had turned, nunchucks out, barely noticing the blood that had run down his arm. His blue eyes were not as menacing as the eyes of the red masked demon, or even the blue. This was the easiest of the brothers. The most vulnerable.

Takeshi's thoughts that this would be an easy capture and win for him was quickly corrected when the turtle struck out his chuck cracking against Mitsuo's head and he had gone down. Takeshi had quickly hit a communication device of his own as they'd chased the turtle, wearing him down with attack then falling back, attack again, fall back once more. Takeshi wasn't foolish and was willing to be patient so he would get his prize. Putting the head of a turtle on Karai's desk would surely give him and the clan honor. Karai would reward him handsomely.

After chasing the turtle across the city the turtle finally broke. Takeshi had taken him down with a snap kick that had knocked the exhausted turtle off the roof, he'd crashed into the dumpster below before sprawling out on the sidewalk, quite still. Injured himself and too weak to carry the freak himself he'd ordered Nao and Ryota to bring the turtle back to the tower as he'd gone with the others to tend to their injuries. But they had never returned and Karai had been furious when Takeshi had returned empty handed.

So that was why Takeshi was out scouring the alleyway trying to find out what had become of the turtle. His backup guard were waiting on the roof for him. He knew they were getting impatient and so was he. There was nothing but dry blood down here. What a waste of time. The others had surely come to dispose of the body by now. They wouldn't want one of their own to be discovered and taken apart by scientists. Takeshi also knew that blinded by their grief it would be the perfect moment to strike at Karai's enemies and take the enemy clan down. They were down by one as well, they had always been stronger as a unit and that unit was broken.

Disgusted with the lack of results, he climbed back up to the rooftop. "Wareware wa hōkoku suru hitsuyō ga aru."

"Takeshi, another patrol has spotted the turtles. They are coming this way."

Takeshi smiled behind his mask. Perhaps the night wouldn't be a total waste after all.

* * *

Leonardo felt very uneasy as they approached the apartment building their brother was in. The night was quiet and there weren't any signs that they were being followed but he couldn't shake the feeling that eyes were watching their every move.

"Leo, ya listenin'?"

Leo's eyes snapped to Raphael who was scowling at him. "Sorry, Raph, what?"

"I said we goin' t'rough da side window?"

"Probably be better for cover," Leonardo agreed.

Raph rolled his eyes and slipped down the fire escape with Don tailing him and Leonardo coming in the rear after one last sweep of the rooftops. They were silent and empty. Still…

His brothers were waiting and Leonardo was just as anxious to get their brother back as they were. On cat's feet the brothers made their way to the window. After a few short minutes Donatello had the window unlocked and the three brothers slipped inside. It was time to reclaim what was theirs. And bring him home.


	9. Chapter 8 The Rescue

**Sorry guys - know it has been a few weeks. I was pretty sick last week and I'd crash every day after work and this week as always has been crazy. But here it is the long awaited chapter. The turtles know where their brother is and they're going to get him... or will the Foot get him first? ;) Thanks again to all those who review. I promise I will respond to last chapters reviews when I get home this afternoon. I'm on my way out the door right now I have to teach a class. Meanwhile enjoy this chapter and I'll write again soon. Thanks for sticking with me and being patient through all my craziness. **

* * *

**Chapter 8**

"Popcorn and soda… and there's some chips too. What's the point in game night if there's no junk food to enjoy it?" Melinda asked with a slight grin as she sat next to the turtle again.

"It's your turn." The turtle said, smiling back as he reached into the popcorn bowl and grabbed a handful in his large hand, making a sizable dent in the almost overflowing bowl.

"Ok let's see how long it takes for me to die this time," Melinda said with a laugh.

"Well just don't fall in a hole or run into any spiky bugs and you won't die."

Melinda shook her head and rolled her eyes, a little exasperated. "Show off, just because you're better at it. Where did you learn to… " she stopped when he frowned. "Sorry. I keep forgetting."

"Me too."

Melinda did laugh then. This turtle was something else. He gave her a slightly crooked grin as he reached for one of the soda cans, he popped the lid with ease and took a long pull, then made a face as the carbonated drink fizzed, obviously tickling his nose and irritating his throat. He swallowed, waited a few seconds then took another long pull from the drink.

"Oh man, it's the chocolate world," Melinda groaned. "My sister was always a lot better at this than I was. "

Melinda pushed the button and entered the next level. Jumping over a giant green monster and landed on a smaller one before it could blow fire on her. She made Mario run as fast as she dared to get Yoshi before going into the tunnel. She shifted to the edge of her seat, biting her tongue, totally focused on the screen as she tried not to slide off the edges of the slanted cliffs and not get killed by the flying turtles as she tried to get to the end of the level.

"Better watch out for that… oh that was close… look out for that… "

The turtles commentary was not helping.

"Gah! Look out for that… "

Yoshi smacked into the turtle, he bolted and took Mario with him down the hole and she died.

"Told you to look out for the… "

"Flying turtle?"

"Yeah, that."

"Gee thanks."

He gave her a weak smile.

Melinda snatched the popcorn bowl from him and popped a few of the popped kernels into her mouth as he moved Luigi to the same level, easily dodging the large and small fire breathing monsters, he too grabbed Yoshi, but unlike Melinda he seemed to have no trouble avoiding the flying turtles while sliding around on the slanted cliffs. Not only that but he managed to grab one of the turtles with Yoshi's tongue and blew fire balls at the next, catching the coin as he leapt to the next cliff.

She leaned back against the couch cushion. If she were being honest with herself she was having more fun watching him play than actually playing herself, although she had the feeling that he found the fact that she kept dying funny.

After passing several more levels with ease while Melinda kept dying quite easily, much to both of their amusements. With the turtle the game seemed to go quite fast. "Think you can beat Bowser?"

He smirked. "No problem dudette."

But whether he could really beat Bowser or not Melinda never found out, because as soon as he hit the start button, Melinda's windows caved in as people clad in black pajamas came swarming in.

* * *

Takeshi waited for the scout to report back to see which apartment the turtles had gone into impatiently. He was not a patient man and having to wait for the newbie to check it out and come back was wearing on his already tightly strung nerves. These turtles were such thorns in their sides. He really wished that mistress Karai had gotten rid of them years ago. Back when the turtles had been more neieve in the ways of the world. But Karai had been foolish, toying with the leader of the enemy clan as if he were her own personal play thing. Going on about honor. Not that Karai didn't value honor. Especially the Shredder's honor, which is why she'd finally seen the light and turned on the turtles. The leader, Leonardo, he was responsible for the banishment of the Shredder. Karai seemed certain that it was all Leonardo's fault, that the others had just followed his lead and done what they were told since he was the leader. And because of that, Karai's personal vendetta against the turtles was mostly aimed at Leonardo.

Takeshi wasn't sure if that was because Karai had formed a friendship with the turtle when she had first come to the states to help restore order to the Foot clan.

At last the tall and lanky scout returned.

"Well?" Takeshi spat.

"They went into the last apartment on the right, ground floor sir. One of the turtles is on the couch with the woman in there."

Takeshi's eyes narrowed behind his mask. As a member of the Foot Clan he had many enemies, but he didn't hate any as much as he hated the turtles and their allies. If a woman in there was friends with the turtles she had just made a very powerful enemy. However, if he could somehow get her away from the turtles, take her back to the Foot Tower, make her tell them where the turtles filthy lair was, she wouldn't be useless. However, killing them all would be a greater honor.

"Sir?"

He drew his katana. "Kill them all."

* * *

Melinda had never been more terrified in her life. Her apartment had been swarmed with black clad pajama wearing people who had all had weapons. Some with swords, others with long sticks. They didn't seem to stop coming, like a cockroach infestation. The less you wanted the more there were.

The turtle next to her was instantly on his feet, hauling her to hers, the popcorn bowl tipping over and the popcorn spilling all over the floor, crunching under their feet as he pushed her back towards the door, only to have that kicked in and more black pajama clad people came in.

If that wasn't shock enough Melinda thought she would pass out when three more giant turtles came rushing from down the hall. None of them were injured like the one she was currently hiding behind was, and all three of them had fire in their eyes when they saw the pajama clad people.

The one in the red mask growled, his sharp fork like weapons drawn, his amber eyes sparked fear into Melinda's heart. He was terrifying and as he threw himself right into a fight with these other guys Melinda felt her adrenaline shoot through her system. They had come for their friend, they had come for their friend and they were going to kill everyone in the process. She was going to die!

She gripped the edge of her new friend's shell, hoping he could convince these other giant turtles that she had only been trying to help.

But for now they seemed to have no interest at all in her. The one in blue, who's dark brown eyes were just as scary as the red banded turtle drew his swords, the metal flashed in the light and clanged against the black clad men's swords. The third was drawing a stick and spun it expertly as he too went into battle against these… whoever they were.

Several of them advanced on her and her new friend, he pushed her more firmly into the corner, protecting her with his shell.

From the corner of her eye she saw movement and ducked just as a stick swung where her head had been. The turtle growled and moved away from her, catching her would be attacker with a hard punch, that put him down on the ground. But it was a small victory as several more quickly moved in on him, sensing weakness.

Melinda knew his injuries hindered him, and he moved a bit stiffly as he fought back. Melinda's eyes snapped to the other turtles, wondering if they knew that their friend was in big trouble. But they all seemed distracted with their own battles, trying to prevent more of these people from coming in through the windows.

As Melinda's eyes snapped back to her friend she saw him fall when a lucky strike with a bo caught him across the shell. He grunted going to his knees. Melinda screamed and ran forward without thinking. He was hurt! Were these people trying to kill him? She wasn't just going to sit back and watch them do that! She knew they were armed and she wasn't. She knew they had fighting skills, which was something else that she lacked. But it was as if watching someone else controlling her body. The logical part of her mind had no control over what she was doing even as she raced forward she knew it would be too late. She grabbed a hold of the bo before it could smash the turtle's head in and hung onto it desperately trying to kick the man wielding it as he tried to shake her off. Still she held out. She heard him grunt when her foot connected with his jaw.

She had no time to congratulate herself for her victory because a kick to the ribs winded her. She blinked, her eyes watering in pain as she fought to get air into her lungs, but they stubbornly refused to work. Still she did not let go of the bo. She felt another blow this time to her back, she felt something give in her chest, it felt as if she'd been hit by a bus. Her fingers went numb and she felt the bo pulled away.

She heard them speaking in a language she couldn't understand, she saw them reaching for her, but could do nothing to prevent it as her world bled into gray. Then black. And she knew nothing else.

* * *

"Raphael, calm down."

"Dey knew 'e was dere! Dey were tryin' ta kill 'im!"

"Raph, storming off to foot tower right now is a bad idea and you know it!"

Raphael glared at his girlfriend and she glared right back.

Raphael had been on edge ever since the turtles had returned home almost an hour ago. He had barely sat still long enough for Elizabeth to help with his stitches for a nasty gash on his arm. She was now working on a deeper cut on Leonardo's arm thanks to a lucky strike from Takeshi. Leonardo was positive it was Takeshi because he'd heard one of the other Foot soldiers call to him. And if Leonardo recalled right Takeshi was right up there in the ranks of Karai's first in command. If he wasn't her first in command.

Leonardo had been fighting to get to Michelangelo when he'd seen his brother go down, and Takeshi had caught him with a lucky swing of his katana, furious, Leonardo had returned the favor. Takeshi had fallen back, blood falling from the deep cut on his arm. Leonardo had turned just in time to avoid being hit with a bo and had countered, taking the soldier out and had once again glanced towards his fallen brother to see a petite blonde girl who could weigh no more than 110 pounds holding onto the bo of a would be attacker and kicking furiously at him while he tried to get her off.

It was almost funny if the situation hadn't been so serious. They were already one brother down, Mikey wasn't getting up and he'd seen Raph take a few good hits. They needed to get Mikey and get out. But he knew that they couldn't just leave the girl here, especially not now that the foot would associate her with them.

And then he'd heard her cry and she too had gone down. It had been time to leave. Calling to his brothers they'd fought together to get to Mikey and the girl. Raph had gathered up their fallen brother, Don the girl and Leonardo had acted as a rear guard as they'd made their escape into the night.

The girl and Mikey were both still unconscious, Don hovering anxiously over their brother checking his wounds, old and fresh, for himself.

Elizabeth scowled as she pulled the needle through Leonardo's flesh, she was only halfway done and Leonardo really wished that she and Raph could wait until after she was done stitching him up to fight. She was less gentle when she was angry and stitches weren't exactly fun when she was gentle.

"Raph, you know she's right. Going in half cocked isn't going to do anyone any good."

"Leo!"

"Raph, Mikey is going to be ok. He's home now. They aren't going to get him down here."

"But what if we hadn't known 'e was in dat apartment, Leo? What if dey found out before we did?"

"I know, Raph. But it didn't."

"Leo!"

"Raph," Leonardo sighed. "We'll handle the Foot, on our terms. "But Mikey is in no shape to fight tonight, and how far do you think you're going to get with that arm like that?"

"I'm fine."

"You say that now, but we both know better."

Raph scowled. If there was one thing he truly hated it was being told that he was weak. Not that that was what Leonardo was implying. But Leonardo was too tired to really get into it with his brother now. It had been a long few days, worrying about Michelangelo, the long patrols, and the fight tonight.

"Raph, why don't you go check on Akemi?" Elizabeth suggested. "You know she's been waking up in the middle of the night lately – she goes to sleep better if you're in there with her."

Raph scowled but headed for the nursery.

Elizabeth turned her attention back to Leonardo's arm, moving the needle more gently through his flesh this time.

"What are you going to do with her, Leo?"

Leo's fingers drummed on his knee for a minute as Elizabeth tied another knot in the flesh, closing more of the wound.

"She'll have to stay here until we can figure out what to do with her. It's too dangerous for her to go home, especially since the Foot knows she's helped us. They'll try to use her to get to us. The fact that she doesn't know anything won't stop them from taking her if they get the chance. She'd die trying to tell them she knew nothing about where we were, and that's even if she said that. She was defending Mikey from them, or trying to anyway."

"Really?" Elizabeth was surprised by this.

"Yeah, saw her clinging to a bo, stopping the Foot soldier from crushing Mikey's head with it."

"She sounds brave," Elizabeth said thoughtfully as she finished the last stitch and put an ace bandage over the wound, taping it in place. "But, Leo, being down here with all you guys might be a bit overwhelming. Seeing one of you is one thing, but four… "

"She's already seen four of us, Elizabeth."

"Yeah while her apartment was full of Foot soldiers," Elizabeth put her needle down and wiped the blood off her hands with a damp towel. She shook her head as she gathered up her medical supplies. "Might be different when she's down here and there aren't any Foot ninja to distract her."

"If that's the case, Elizabeth, we'll deal with it then." Leo said calmly though his tone indicated his patience was wearing thin. "Right now we don't have a choice. She's in danger if she goes home and we both know it."

"She might not see it that way," Elizabeth warned. She headed to the bathroom.

Leo shook his head, his patience at an end and went to talk to Splinter about their retrieval mission.

* * *

Filthy Foot scum. Raphael wanted them all to disappear. If they hadn't found out where Mikey was… and if the Foot soldiers had gotten to him first, then Mikey wouldn't be downstairs in the infirmary. Mikey wouldn't be safe with his brothers. Mikey would be being tortured in the Foot headquarters, Mikey could have been used as a science experiment, or Mikey could've been sold to the highest bidder just for Karai's amusement.

And then there was this girl that Mikey had been with. Raph wasn't exactly thrilled that they'd had to bring her back to the lair, although he knew Leo had a point when Leonardo had told him it was too dangerous to leave her in her apartment where the Foot could come back and grab her. Although she knew nothing about where they lived and her knowledge of them couldn't be too extensive, the Foot would torture that out of her before they killed her. If she was that lucky. Thrilled about her or not, Raph didn't want that.

But why hadn't Mikey called to tell them where he was? And how did they know they could really trust this chick? For all they knew she could be working with the Foot. It was quite convenient that she had been the one to find him, that he had been right outside her apartment building, and that the night the turtles had come to retrieve their brother had been the night the place was swarming with Foot. Was she really a lousy Foot ninja spy and tonight had been the night she was going to sell Mikey out?

Raph's blood boiled at the thought. He didn't like strangers and he didn't trust them. Elizabeth had been the only exception to that rule and as far as he was concerned that was how it was going to stay. This girl in their lair was a stranger and Raph didn't trust her. What if it had been a ploy? She acted like she was helping Mikey, acted liked she was trying to protect him all so she could find out where the lair was and report back to Karai and tell her so that Karai could come down and kill them all?

Raph opened the door to Akemi's room, but the toddler wasn't awake. She was laying on her stomach, her head turned away from him, hands up over her head like they always were when she slept. Her chest rose and fell steadily, her brown curls were tangled and knotted, framing her small head. Raph quietly closed the door so she could sleep. He was staying close to Mikey and this stranger until he figured out exactly who she was and what she had to do with his brother.


	10. Chapter 9 Stubborn

**Hey guys. Hope everyone has had a good couple of weeks. Work has been really crazy for me and I've been working long hours. Our company sold almost a million dollars worth of product in one week so I was working overtime hours and came home exhausted and had other responsibilities come up this past week. Worked really hard to get this next chapter done today so I could get it posted. So I hope it was worth the wait. Thank you for being patient with me and sticking with me. I hope everyone has a great week. And thanks for those who take the time to review, really appreciate it.**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

Elizabeth was incredibly frustrated with Raphael. She had known he was stubborn and difficult at times, but the arrival of this girl in the lair had really set his teeth on edge. Elizabeth had tried to talk to him about it, but when his temper had gotten too close to the surface for Elizabeth's comfort she had backed down. Raphael had never, and she knew he never would, strike her, but she found it hard to control the impulse to flinch away from him when he was really angry. She knew he tried hard to be patient with her, and their arguments were usually rare and short lived. Elizabeth didn't like confrontation so she would either let Raph have his way or she would drop the subject and bring it up later when he had had time to cool down and it was then they would work things out.

However, there were times like this, where Elizabeth found trying to reason with Raphael incredibly frustrating. He wasn't in the mood to be reasoned with and Elizabeth was wasting her breath trying to reason with him. She knew what Raphael thought of this girl, she'd gotten him to open up to her about what he thought about her when he'd refused to join the rest of them for lunch. Elizabeth had no doubt that his accusations were false. She remembered what Donatello had said when he'd finally come out of the infirmary after checking over Mikey's injuries for himself.

It could have been worse. A broken arm, just below the elbow, several bruises and a few gashes, some deep some not. From what Donatello had said this girl had tried to help by doctoring Michelangelo's injuries, the broken arm could have easily gone septic if it had been left untreated and she had stitched his wounds just as neatly as Donatello would have. The injury that worried Donatello the most was the head wound. Head injuries were tricky even with professionally trained doctors – and Donatello had a feeling that the most recent battle hadn't helped. Don couldn't tell them whether the head injury had been inflicted from the Foot or when Mikey had probably fallen from the rooftops to the alley below. Either way, he was worried about what the outcome would be. They all were.

Elizabeth had missed the rest of the conversation because Akemi had woken from her nap and had wanted to watch The Lion King again. Elizabeth had put her foot down. She would put in any other movie except for that one. Akemi had pouted and had acted like she was going to throw a great big fuss; Elizabeth told her if she did The Lion King would not be put in for a week.

Rather than having her favorite movie being banned for a week, Akemi had reluctantly walked over to the large selection of DVDs Elizabeth had been collecting for her daughter. She preferred this to letting Akemi go channel surfing, having caught her watching a cartoon show that had such foul language that Elizabeth had been appalled. After that the DVD collection had grown immensely and Elizabeth was always looking for new movies hoping to captivate her daughter and take her attention away from The Lion King. From the moment she'd put that one in Akemi had been spell bound, and Elizabeth had had no luck in replacing it yet.

Of course, it helped that Akemi was only aloud to watch two movies a day. Elizabeth insisted from an early age that Akemi get into books, her library for Akemi was larger than her DVD collection, which was saying something. But she'd always found good prices for used and still in good condition children's books online and had had them sent to a P.O. Box that she frequently visited. Akemi loved reading with her mother or her adopted uncles just as much as she loved trying to make them watch The Lion King with her.

Because Akemi had chosen to do reading time instead of a movie earlier she could still choose two movies she wanted to watch, and as usual she went straight to the Disney section of the DVDs. Disney movies seemed to be her favorite. She sat on the ground staring hard at the covers and small pictures underneath the titles on the outer edge of each case, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, her long brown curls gently lying over her shoulders and down her back.

She really did need a haircut, Elizabeth thought with a sigh. But she just couldn't do it. She loved her daughter's curls. She looked just like she did when she was Akemi's age. She had very little of Graham in her face, although when she got angry and threw a tantrum, Elizabeth could see Graham in the lines of her strong jaw. She tried not to focus on that too much. Akemi really didn't throw tantrums that often, and Elizabeth knew she had Leonardo to thank for that. From the moment Akemi had been big enough to scoot across the floor on her own she'd gravitated towards the blue banded turtle, and as she'd begun to crawl and then to walk she had always sought him out. There was just a stillness about Leonardo that Akemi seemed drawn to.

That didn't mean that Akemi was as calm as Leonardo was. Sure she seemed more peaceful and calm around him, but as quickly as she'd calm down she'd be wound back up again and just as hyper as before. Of course that was what happened with toddlers. Elizabeth was growing used to it now, they all were.

Akemi selected a DVD and ran over to Elizabeth with it. Elizabeth took it expectantly. Robin Hood. Well at least it wasn't one of the other two in The Lion King series. Elizabeth knew that Raph had tried to hide those DVDs at one point and Akemi had thrown such a fuss that Raphael had reluctantly pulled them back out again, grumbling the whole time.

Elizabeth took Robin Hood and put it in the DVD player, starting it up for her daughter. Akemi sat, eyes wide as she saw the rooster come out singing and start to tell the story about Robin Hood and Little John. As the song progressed it got faster, more enthusiastic, and that was what Akemi had been waiting for. Jumping up off the couch cushion she began to run around the couch as if chasing something or being chased herself as the soldiers chased Robin Hood and Little John through the woods. She giggled to herself as she did this, obviously thrilled with this game.

"Akemi, we don't… " Elizabeth shook her head not bothering to finish the sentence. Akemi was always like this when there was new music she liked and this music was just as much fun as The Lion King's music was for her. Akemi kept running around the couch giggling happily even after the song had ended.

"Akemi, sit down please and watch the movie or mommy is going to turn it off."

Akemi stopped running and immediately sat down to watch the movie. Usually Mikey would sit there and watch it with her, Elizabeth hoped that he was up soon. She knew Akemi missed him.

He was home now. He was safe. And he'd be ok. He'd be back to driving Raph crazy and watching movies with Akemi in no time. Elizabeth was sure. She headed for the kitchen to start dinner.

* * *

Melinda had never known that her body could be so heavy, that her limbs could weigh more than a ten ton weight, and that her eyelids would be glued down. She struggled to lift them, trying to make her mind focus on what had happened and why she hurt. It felt like someone had hit her with a truck, though she couldn't remember being hit by a car, and this didn't smell like a hospital. It had an odd musky smell, damp, she could hear the slow drip drop as if a pipe was leaking somewhere and shivered a little in the cool air. How strange. This definitely wasn't a hospital.

She forced her eyes open, surprised by the fact that they weren't glued shut like they'd felt. She was in what appeared to be a room of some sorts. But this wasn't what she'd expected to see. A hospital maybe, or even a police station. But this room was very different.

She was on an old, very worn but soft bed covered with blankets that had definitely seen better days, several patches had been sewn into the worn fabric of the top quilt and she had a feeling the extra blankets folded at the bottom of the bed were in similar shape.

She pushed the covers off herself and stood up, wincing a little as the pain radiated up and down her neck and back. She sighed, rubbing her neck gingerly. She had to find out where she was, and what had happened to her new friend. Surely those men in the black pajamas wouldn't have given her the four star hotel treatment, and weren't there more turtles? She felt her stomach tighten as she remembered the fear she'd felt when she'd seen the demonic eyes of the turtle in the red mask, and the fire in the blue masked turtle's eyes. They had been terrifying. They wouldn't hurt her would they? She had never hurt the turtle she'd been trying to help him. Maybe he could explain that to them for her? Or she could tell them that she'd been trying to help? But would they give her a chance to explain?

She had to get out of here. She had to go home. She had a job she had to get back to. Buddy and that meeting… he was expecting her to be there. He'd fire her if she just didn't show up. And then what would she do?

She was surprised to find her feet were bare, but then again she hadn't been wearing shoes when the pajama men had broken into her apartment, she had been at her home after all. And she rarely wore shoes when she was just relaxing around the house. But this stone cold floor sent shivers up her spine and she wrapped her arms around herself as she made her way across the small room.

But before she could reach the door it opened and a slender woman wearing a red one-shoulder bra top that clung to her thin waist showing off her perfect figure and hip hugger jeans, her long brown hair trailing down her back the light catching a few of the golden highlights in her hair made Melinda pause.

"Oh," bright emerald colored eyes met her own and Melinda automatically took a step back.

"You're awake wasn't sure if you would be."

Melinda stared at her, not quite sure to say to this. The girl smiled at her, warm and friendly. "I'm Elizabeth."

"W… where am I? What am I doing here?" Melinda didn't want to panic but she was feeling alarmed now. She had no idea where she was, why she was here, or who this Elizabeth was or how Elizabeth had gotten her here.

"Whoa, easy, easy," Elizabeth made her way into the room quietly closing the door behind her. "Just take it easy, the guys brought you here after you were knocked unconscious by one of the Foot."

"Foot?!" What did a foot have to do with anything? She wasn't kicked in the head... or was she?

"The Foot Clan, an enemy of my family. When the guys found Mikey at your place they knew they had to get him out and when the Foot showed up… well they didn't think it would be safe for you to stay there. So they brought you back with them to keep you safe."

"Whoa, whoa! Slow down. What are you talking about?"

Elizabeth's warm smile faltered and she looked at the girl as if expecting Melinda to explode, and Melinda wasn't at all sure if she was wrong or not.

"Michelangelo. They found him in your apartment. You were caring for him weren't you?"

"Michelangelo?" Melinda looked at Elizabeth for a minute. "You his owner?"

Elizabeth frowned and her eyes darkened a bit. "No. They aren't animals."

Melinda had a feeling that she was about to poke a sleeping grizzly in the eye with a stick, so she changed the subject. "Is he ok?"

"He's still unconscious. But he should be fine in time. All the guys are fast healers."

"There were more… I saw them in my apartment."

Elizabeth nodded slowly as if she'd been afraid of this. "Yes, Michelangelo's brothers. They found out that he was in your apartment and came to bring him home. They'd been looking for him for a couple days."

"Michelangelo? So he does have a name?"

Elizabeth seemed surprised by this. "He didn't tell you his name?"

"He couldn't remember his name when I asked him."

Elizabeth sighed. "Donny was afraid of this," she said almost to herself.

"Donny? That one of the others?"

"Yes, he's the medic in the family. He's been caring for Michelangelo ever since they got him home. He was worried there might be some side effects from the blow to the head Mikey took. Guess we'll have to see just how bad it is when Mikey wakes up again. Anyway," Elizabeth shook her head. "I'm sorry I'm being rude, I came in here to see if you are hungry… dinner is almost ready."

"Oh, um… yeah I am." Melinda was surprised when she felt her stomach aching with hunger pains.

Elizabeth nodded. "It'll be ready in about fifteen minutes. There's a bathroom just across the hall and I can lend you some of my clothes until the guys have a chance to go up and retrieve some of your things for… "

"Wait, wait, what are you talking about? I can't stay here. I have to go home. I have to go back to work." Melinda was alarmed at the fact that they weren't going to let her leave. No one would know what had happened to her. She'd just be gone! What would that do to her family? She'd be fired if she wasn't there for that meeting, Buddy was a fair boss but he frowned on unexcused absences and this meeting was too important for her to just miss.

"Look, um… "Elizabeth looked at her.

"Melinda."

"Melinda," Elizabeth continued, she made sure to keep her voice steady and gentle, soothing. "It's just not a good idea for you to go home. If the Foot come back looking for you they won't hesitate to take you back to Foot Tower and will use any means necessary to get any information you have on my family."

"I don't know anything about your family."

"But you could die trying to convince them of that! They've killed for less. They aren't an honorable bunch and your life will mean little to them."

"I'll be fired if I don't go back to work! I can't afford to lose this job!" Melinda was getting desperate now. The fact that these Foot guys whoever they were might be looking for her was less scary than the thought of facing an angry Buddy if she missed this meeting.

"What's more important your job or your life?" Elizabeth watched as Melinda's jaw clenched and the blue eyes met hers defiantly. Melinda was more stubborn than Raphael. "Melinda, I know this has to be hard for you but… "

"You can't keep me here!"

Elizabeth's shoulders slumped a little. "We aren't trying to keep you here against your will. If you really want to leave we aren't going to stop you. But it isn't safe for you to go back to your apartment. At least go to a hotel or something."

"Don't be ridiculous. For the amount I pay for that apartment, it's stupid to be paying for a hotel too!"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I'll ask the guys to take you home if that's what you really want. Do you want to stay for dinner?"

Melinda shook her head. She didn't need anyone else trying to convince her that it wasn't safe to go home. She just wanted to go home.

"I'll see if Raph or Leo can take you home then." Elizabeth left the room, quietly shutting the door behind her.

* * *

"Told ya she was a bloody Foot spy! Why else would she wanna go 'ome where dey can get 'er!"

"Raphael, calm down!"

Raph glared at his girlfriend and she glared back.

"Elizabeth, did you tell her that it isn't safe for her to go home?" Donatello asked quietly as he gently sponged Mikey's forehead with a cool cloth. The youngest turtle lay quite still under his brother's ministrations.

"Of course I did, but she's worried about losing her job."

"What's more important? A job or 'er life?" Raph growled.

"Raphael, please." Elizabeth said though she'd asked Melinda that herself and felt the same way he did. It would seem like the answer was obvious, but it was hard to explain the way Melinda's jaw had tightened, her muscles bunching, here eyes getting the same stubborn look in them that Raph's got when he was about to give an answer that only made sense to him.

Leonardo sighed stepping away from the wall. "If she really wants to go home we can't stop her from leaving. Don, can we set up surveillance at her home? Make sure the Foot doesn't touch her?"

Don frowned. "Leo, I can't leave… "

"I can watch Mikey, Don. I think that this is just as important. She doesn't want to be here, and she wants to go home. She won't stay in a hotel. You're the best with this kind of stuff. You could set up a security camera outside her apartment. You know the Foot will be keeping an eye on her now that they've associated her with our family," Elizabeth said. "What's to stop them from coming after her?"

"Security camera won't do much for protection," Don said with a slight frown.

"No, but I'm sure you could rig up something that would let you guys know if the Foot came back for her couldn't you?"

Don sighed. "I supposed I could do something. Doubt she'd let me set it up though."

"No," Leonardo agreed. "Doubt she'd like the idea that we are setting up cameras outside her apartment. Don, Raph, you two go ahead so Don can get that set up. I'll follow with Melinda, meet you two on the roof when I know she's in her apartment."

Don shook his head as if he were doing this against his better judgement and went to get his bag. "Just keep an eye on his temperature, Elizabeth. Call me if he wakes up."

"I promise, Don."

Slipping the strap over his shoulder and with a still muttering Raph the two turtles hurried out.

Leo glanced at his brother and then at Elizabeth. "I need to go talk to Splinter. Tell Melinda we'll leave in ten minutes. That should give Don and Raph a good enough head start that Don can be finished before we get there."

"Ok, Leo," Elizabeth agreed, "just be careful."

Leo nodded and left quickly. Elizabeth knew that they didn't like her clinging. But she couldn't help it. The Foot were out there and even though Raph and Don would be together, Leonardo would be taking Elizabeth alone. They didn't need another injured turtle. Especially if Michelangelo's head wound was as bad as Melinda had said. She hadn't told Don, she hadn't told any of them. How was she supposed to tell them that their brother, their baby brother that they had finally found, might not have a clue as to who they were?


	11. Chapter 10 Trouble

**Hey guys. Happy Saturday. Hope everyone has had a good week. Have a lot to do tomorrow and won't be home tonight so I worked really hard to get this next chapter written for you. As always I really appreciate those who take the time to review, really appreciate it. I know it takes me a couple weeks to update but work has really been keeping me running around in circles lately and it's just getting busier and busier with the warmer months coming up. Really appreciate your guys patience. I do feel like I'm really getting into my stride with this story now sometimes it takes me a while before I do so hopefully the updates won't be so far between from here on out. Can't promise because it really does depend on how busy work is and how many hours of over time I end up working. But I will keep trying. Have a great weekend!**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

Melinda sighed as she finished nailing a temporary sheet of wood over the last of the broken windows. She had no idea how she was going to explain this to the management. Four broken windows, glass all over the place, her apartment looked like it had been in a fight, furniture overturned, her TV was beyond repair, the Super Nintendo smashed. Several of her pictures had fallen off the walls, the frames and glass shattered adding more glass to an already treacherous carpet. She wouldn't be able to walk around without shoes for a while in here. Not until she was sure all the glass was gone. And with the way the broken glass was shining and dancing in the overhead lights giving away just how much was in the carpet she had a feeling that wouldn't be for a while.

Glass crunching underneath her shoes Melinda went to the kitchen and grabbed a trash can so she could start picking up the large shards of glass. She tossed them carelessly into the trash can as she crouched carefully, not daring to even kneel to give her body better comfort as she worked. The fact was she knew she'd be more likely to cut herself that way. Who knew that bringing an injured turtle into her apartment could ultimately lead towards her apartment being completely trashed and her picking up shattered glass at 2:00 in the morning when she had to go to work in just a few short hours. She hadn't studied much about this meeting and knew she was going in completely unprepared. Buddy was not going to be happy with her.

She shouldn't have interfered, she should have left the turtle where she'd found him. Then none of this would have happened. She could have been prepared for the meeting and she wouldn't be in danger of losing her job because of it.

Melinda winced as she sliced open her palm on a sharp piece of glass. Red immediately pooled to the surface of her hand and ran over the sides. Melinda swore hurrying to the sink, turning on the warm water and ran her hand over it. She hissed as the water stung, and catching a flash within the cut she carefully reach in and pulled a smaller shard of glass out of the meaty part of her hand feeling slightly sick.

It was a deep cut. She really didn't want to go to the hospital to get stitches, but stitching it up herself, especially considering the location would be tricky at best. Grabbing a dish towel out of the bottom drawer she wrapped up her hand. It would have to do for right now. She hadn't had a chance to shower since the blue masked monster had brought her back. She was terrified of him, but at least it wasn't the red masked monster, that one made her blood run cold in her veins.

The blue masked monster hadn't said much to her as he'd led her back home, Melinda had quickly gotten lost in the dark and confusing sewer tunnels, she wouldn't know how to get back to their home if she tried, and she figured that was probably the point. Especially since those "foot" people had been after the turtle she'd brought back to her apartment.

Michelangelo. That was his name. Elizabeth had told her that he had had a name. That she didn't own them. That they weren't pets. Melinda didn't really think that they could be pets. They were fighters, they carried weapons. She'd seen Michelangelo's weapons when she'd first found him, she'd almost fallen because she'd stepped on that round wood weapon with the chains that linked them together. She had no idea what they were but she had no doubt that they were weapons.

The monster that had escorted her back had had weapons too. She had no idea if this was Raph or Leo… or even Don. He hadn't really talked to her, hadn't introduced himself, Elizabeth had just come back and said that she could go use the bathroom if she needed to and that she'd be taken home in ten minutes. Melinda had waited nervously in the living room, looking around at the surprisingly comfortable home, it had everything anyone could possibly need, even a kitchen, which really shocked Melinda since she found out they were in the sewers.

And just as promised ten minutes later the monster in blue had emerged from a paper rice door, with a room hidden behind it. He'd looked at her, his eyes calculating her behind the mask he wore, his eyes not at all like the blue eyed turtle she'd helped. They were colder, more suspicious and a bit wary. "Let's go." Had been the only thing he'd said to her until they'd reached the surface.

Melinda had followed him, trying to avoid what she knew had to be in the disgusting waters of the sewer, making a face, and breathing threw her mouth so the stink wouldn't overwhelm her. Several times she'd seen him turn to glare at her, though she wasn't sure why he was. He almost seemed annoyed. Every time he did this he'd look around as if expecting the shadows to leap out at them, then he'd shake his head and keep walking without a word. They'd walked for a very long time. Melinda was getting frustrated, she didn't like walking in the stinky sewers and she had a feeling that they were going around in circles it all looked the same down here. But then at last the turtle had stopped and began to climb a rung ladder, Melinda had hesitated for only a minute before copying him. He'd lifted the manhole cover with relative ease and had slipped out waiting for her. Melinda was surprised to see they were just down the street from her apartment. Grabbing her arm he'd pulled her to the closest alley. Melinda was startled and had fought at first but his grip was strong and firm. He'd refused to yield to her struggles of protest.

"For obvious reasons I just can't walk down the street with you, you act like you are just walking home. I'll keep an eye on you from up there," he gestured to the roof, "see you home."

Melinda opened her mouth to protest that she didn't need an armed guard to see her home, especially when she was this close to her apartment, but the look on his face told her that it wasn't open for discussion and he'd taken to the roof without another word. Melinda had sighed and shaking her head, made her way down the sidewalk, feeling rather jumpy knowing that someone was watching her. He hadn't come back down though, and when Melinda had managed to get inside the building, and then her apartment she felt the tingly up her spine feeling of having eyes on her go away. Heading to the small storage close she rented she shifted several items aside before finding the flat piece of wood she was looking for, some nails and a hammer to board up her broken windows. She didn't need any more unexpected visitors coming in here, and that had brought her up to this point.

Overall it had been the strangest and most frightening weekend she'd had since she'd come to New York. Who knew that such creatures resided under the busy streets and carried such dangerous weapons, or that "foot" people were hunting them? Grabbing the garbage can, Melinda put it back in its place. Her hand hurt and there was no point in trying to clean up more tonight. She was tired, it had been a long night – a long weekend really. And she really didn't need to sleep through her alarm in four hours on top of everything else.

Glass crunching beneath her shoes, Melinda made her way down the hall to her bedroom only to scowl in frustration when she turned on the bedroom light. Glass sparkled all over her bed, that window shattered as well. She couldn't sleep on that. So now what was she supposed to do? Go to a hotel? What else was there to do? Even if she tried to pick up all the glass chances were that there would still be some there. She could cut herself again.

She balled her hands into fists and hissed as her sliced palm screamed in protest. The pain shocked the anger out of her and she headed to get her purse. Hospital first. Hotel afterwards.

* * *

Elizabeth stayed with Michelangelo as she promised waiting anxiously for her family's return safely back to the lair. She was surprised that Melinda had been so adamant about going back home, especially after Elizabeth had explained that the Foot would and could try to get her again, would torture the truth out of her to find out where her family lived. Melinda didn't seem to care – or she didn't believe her. Elizabeth wasn't sure which. But she knew that Leonardo wouldn't let any harm come to the girl, that he would lead her through the sewers back to her apartment, and she also knew that Melinda wouldn't be able to find her way back here without help, Elizabeth herself had really struggled with that for a while. She was so familiar with the tunnels now though that it really wasn't as complicated as she'd once found it, but for someone who had never been down here before trying to find it was impossible. Donatello had set up the security measures too well. The entrance to the lair would look like just another brick wall. There was no seam indicating there was a hidden door there, and if you didn't pull on the right pipe there was no way you could get the door open.

She knew the turtles weren't happy about taking Melinda back anyway. Elizabeth knew that they were worried about what Michelangelo might have told Melinda about them. But with what Melinda had told her Elizabeth knew there was little to worry about. Michelangelo didn't even know his own name, she doubted he'd remember anything about the lair or his brothers, which was a mixed blessing. If the Foot did go after this girl, there wouldn't be much she could tell them about Elizabeth's family – but the Foot were ruthless and Melinda could die trying to tell them that.

Finally Elizabeth heard the turtles return, and she wasn't at all surprised that Donatello headed right back to the makeshift infirmary to check on the youngest turtle.

"How is he?"

"Still unconscious. She get home ok?"

"Yeah she did. Leo made sure she got inside and there weren't any signs of any lingering Foot hanging around. Raph and I checked it out before Leo and Melinda got there."

Elizabeth nodded, knowing that the brothers would have been thorough before letting Melinda return home. Don walked over to Michelangelo and put a hand on his baby brother's forehead, frowning a little. "He should have woken up by now."

"He'll wake up when he's ready to wake up, Don. Just give him time."

Don nodded but he still seemed troubled he walked over to his desk, looking at an encyclopedia sized book again, Elizabeth shook her head and with one last look at the youngest turtle left the room, there was no point in being in here anymore. Donatello would watch his brother all night while studying what could possibly help with their little brother and prepare himself for whatever situation might hit them when Mikey did.

As Elizabeth entered the living room she heard the unmistakable sound of Raphael in the dojo hitting the punching bag. Leonardo was sitting at the kitchen table sipping at a cup of tea. His usual routine after a mission topside, even if it didn't involve a fight. Tea seemed to calm the oldest of the turtles, even if he acted like something wasn't bothering him.

Knowing that Raph wasn't in the mood for her presence right now Elizabeth opted to try and find out what was bothering the oldest turtle. He was frowning at the table, his hands hard on his cup, his eyes narrowed staring into nothing as if something was eating at him from the inside out.

"I'd say a penny for your thoughts but think they are worth at least a quarter," Elizabeth teased as she entered the kitchen, startling Leonardo into looking up at her. This surprised and worried her but she tried not to let it show. Sneaking up on Leonardo – or any of them for that matter was almost impossible. What could be troubling Leonardo, the one who trained the hardest and studied the art of ninjitsu the hardest out of all his brothers that she could take him by surprise when she just walked into the room?

He relaxed a little leaning back in the chair though he kept his tight hold on his cup of tea, and his smile was forced. "Afraid they aren't worth a quarter."

"Leo, I know something is bothering you, what's wrong?"

He looked at her, really looking at her, almost studying her. Sizing her up. Elizabeth scowled. She didn't like it when he did this. As if trying to see if he really wanted to tell her something. If she had the right to know.

"This doesn't feel right, Elizabeth. Taking her back. When we brought her back here that place was trashed, it isn't safe for her to be there, especially not with the Foot knowing where she lives. Knowing that she helped Mikey. They'll try to get her to tell them where we live."

"You think she can?" Elizabeth asked studying the turtle she saw as an older brother.

Leonardo shook his head, shifting his weight on the chair. "No, took the long route back to her apartment to give Don and Raph extra time to get the security measures set up at her place."

"And to make sure she'd get confused with all the twists and turns in those tunnels," Elizabeth said with a knowing look.

"I need to keep my family safe, Elizabeth."

"I understand that, Leo. But she wanted to go home we couldn't keep her here against her will."

"No I suppose not. Still doesn't feel right." He stood up taking his cup to the sink and rinsed it out. "I'm going to bed. Good night, Elizabeth."

"Night, Leo," Elizabeth watched him go and ran her fingers through her long brown hair. She really hoped for Melinda's sake that they hadn't made a mistake in taking her home, and that the Foot didn't find out she was home. Because if they did, Elizabeth knew the turtles would go on another dangerous mission to get her out of the Foot's clutches before they killed her.

* * *

Melinda knew she was in trouble, that Buddy was not pleased with her when she knew so little about the meeting. The whole day had started off poorly. By the time she'd finished at the hospital it had been nearly five in the morning. She'd headed to a hotel afterwards, knowing that she shouldn't go to sleep because she would have to head out in an hour to catch the subway down to work. But despite her determination not to fall asleep the long weekend and the long trek through the sewers had exhausted her. She'd taken a hot shower hoping it would help wake her up but as soon as she'd sat down on the bed she'd found her eyelids too heavy to stay open. The next thing she remember was the alert tone on her phone telling her the meeting was in an hour and a half. Frantically Melinda had hopped up quickly pulling out the sweet heart strapless black dress she'd selected for this meeting. Her hair had been impossible so she'd quickly pulled it back into a French braid and after slipping on her tennis shoes while grabbing her purse, high heels and stockings she'd hurried out of the hotel.

She was late for work, running and dodging between people who cursed at her as she passed she'd quickly gotten down to the subway just in time to see it pull away. She'd had to wait several long minutes for another one, which had been very full. Scrunched between a large man who smelled like he hadn't taken a bath in a week and a man who leered at her in the tight dress Melinda had endured the very uncomfortable ride. She'd darted back up to the street and jogged down to the office, only to realize when she'd gotten there that she'd forgotten her copy of the notes Buddy had given her.

He was not at all pleased, with her being later or with her being unprepared for the meeting. He'd taken her into his office after the meeting was over and had expressed his displeasure with her, not at all interested in hearing her excuses, even if Melinda had given him any. By the time he dismissed her to leave Melinda was tired, her hand hurt, and she was incredibly frustrated with herself for being so stupid. So careless. Buddy had clearly stated if she did this again she could look for another job.

What was she supposed to do if she didn't have this job? It hadn't been an easy one to come by and she knew Buddy wouldn't give her a good recommendation and with his business being so well known, she knew it could really cripple her chances of getting a good job.

Melinda walked down the street to her apartment, intending on getting more of the glass cleaned up off the floor before heading back to the hotel for the night. The less time she had to stay in her apartment the better. Heading up the front steps she stuck her key in the lock and pushed open the door and headed down the hall. She frowned when she saw the paper on her front door. It was from the management and they weren't at all happy. They had seen the boards in her window and had investigated they expected her to pay for the broken windows. So much for the money she'd saved up for a rainy day. Most of that would go into repairing the broken windows. She'd completely forgotten to call up the management and tell them about the windows… or even come up with a convincing story that would make it seem as if she were an innocent bystander in all this, and if she was perfectly honest with herself she was. She hadn't done anything wrong. All she'd been trying to do was help a poor injured turtle. But she had no doubt if she tried to explain about the men in the black pajamas they would call her crazy and she'd end up paying for the windows anyway.

Ripping the note off the door she went inside. Obviously they'd had the maintenance man in while she'd been out. While her furniture was still overturned and a mess. The glass had been cleaned up, the carpet looked well cleaned up. Melinda would have to thank him for that he'd saved her a lot of work. She went to the bedroom. Her bed was still covered with shards of glass and she knew that the maintenance worker wouldn't have wanted to touch her bed in case she reported it for prying into her personal things. She couldn't sleep there. She began to take more clothes off the hangers and put them in a bag, then grabbing an over-sized garbage bag she pulled off the comforter and put it in the trash bag. She'd have to buy a new one, she didn't want to risk glass being stuck inside the material and her accidentally cutting herself on it. When had her life gone down the drain – and how had it happened so fast?

Adding the blankets and sheets to the bag and after gingerly testing the mattress and finding no glass in it she carried her bag outside and threw it in the dumpster. She hadn't liked those horrid green sheets anyway. She'd gotten them on sale when she'd first come here with no job. Now she could get the comforter and sheets she'd seen when she'd been shopping a few weeks ago. The ones that were her taste.

As she headed back for the apartment she froze, a tingle working its way up her spine. She looked around but saw nothing there. It was black and still. But still something didn't feel right.

She hurried back inside and bolted her door, hurrying to the room and began to shove her clothes into it hastily. Suddenly the hotel seemed a whole lot safer.

* * *

Takeshi watched the girl hurry back to her apartment building.

"The turtles aren't with her, sir."

"No she is alone. But she will tell us what we want to know. She will tell us where our enemies are. She will learn what it means to cross the Foot."

* * *

Melinda grabbed the bag with her clothes and hurried out of the apartment. She'd grab a cab, it seemed safer than the subway. Hurrying down the front steps of the building she walked as fast as she could down the block towards the main road where she could easily hail a cab. But she never made it that far. She heard the softest whisper of sounds and that was her only warning before something hard hit her from behind and she went down, she didn't even have time to turn to see them before her world went black.

* * *

"Leo! Raph!"

Leonardo paused in his spar with Raphael and both turned to look at their purple banded brother. Don looked a bit frantic. "What is it, Donny?"

"The surveillance cameras I set up."

"What about them? Have the foot taken her?"

"I don't know but the windows are boarded up, I can't see anything and I have a bad feeling, something just doesn't feel right I just think it would be a good idea if you and Raph go check – just make sure that everything is ok. You don't have to go in, you don't have to contact her just go and make sure that nothing has happened to her."

"I ain't… "

"Raph, stop." Leo snapped. "She helped Mikey the least we can do is make sure she hasn't fallen into enemy hands because of us."

Raph scowled.

"Raph," Don said with a frown. "You know it's the right thing to do."

"Fine, whatevah – let's jus' get dis over wit'." Raph growled as he put his sai back in his belt and Leo slipped his katana back into their sheathes. The two of them hurried out leaving Don with the task of watching over their incapacitated brother, guarding their home, and letting Elizabeth and Splinter know.


	12. Chapter 11 Rescue and Shocking News

**Hey guys. Here's the next chapter. What are the Foot going to do with Melinda and will the turtles get to her in time? Well guess you'll have to wait and see. :D Thanks again for your patience last weekend was crazy but I worked really hard to get this chapter done today so I could get it posted. Thank you again for those who take the time to review, really appreciate it. See you guys again next time. Have a great week.**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

Raphael scowled crouching down next to his brother as they stared across the street towards the girl's apartment building. All of the broken windows had been boarded up and he knew that trying to get a look inside to check on her would be tricky if they were to avoid being seen. He knew that Leo knew this as well because Leo hadn't spoken since they'd hit the surface and taken to the rooftops.

Next to him Leo shifted his weight, his dark brown eyes were analyzing the apartment building carefully, thoughtfully, as if calculating the best route to take in order to check in on this girl and get out as quickly as possible. Raphael knew that Leo was edgy with all the Foot activity lately, especially with what happened to Mikey, he didn't want them to end up in a situation that they couldn't get themselves out of easily. They were also both aware that this Melinda girl didn't seem to want their help and it made both brothers more wary of being seen by here, especially since she didn't know about the surveillance cameras that Donatello had set up to keep an eye on the place. So them just showing up again out of the blue was bound to raise suspicion.

As far as Raphael was concerned this was a waste of time. Melinda had wanted to leave, she hadn't wanted their help, so why were they trying so hard to help her? It seemed to him like it was a wasted effort and a waste of time. Not to mention that he still wasn't sure how he felt about this girl, if she was really trying to help Mikey or not. If she really had been trying to help Mikey, like Don and Elizabeth seemed to believe why had she been so eager to get away from them when they had saved her from the Foot ninja? Why was she acting like he and his brothers were the bad guys here? It just didn't feel right. Scared of the freaks. As usual. But she hadn't been afraid of Michelangelo so how were they different?

"We are going to have to check it out, Raph," Leo finally broke the silence. Raph shifted next to him, his hands going automatically to his sai. "We'll check out the back window, if we can't see in through there we'll try the bedroom window. Just stick to the shadows, we aren't here to scare her or confront her, just to check and make sure everything is ok since Don can't check on her with his cameras."

"Yeah, yeah, fearless, let's jus' get dis over wit'," Raph growled as he followed his brother over to the fire escape and they descended as silently as shadows. Keeping close and watching Leo's back they darted across the street and to the quiet apartment building.

* * *

Pain was her constant friend, a companion, the only thing that told her she was still alive. She was getting used to it now, although the temperature of the room was going to take some getting used to. If it wasn't so darn cold in here it might actually be tolerable. But with the shivers that constantly ran through her and the pain that was now radiating in her spine as well as her shoulders and wrists Melinda almost wished that whoever it was that had taken her would just do whatever they were going to do with her and get it over with. It would be better than this torturous waiting anyway.

Melinda had no idea how long she'd been unconscious for, or where she was, when the fog had started lifting from her brain the first thing that she had registered was pain. Hot, sharp, and it had almost made her lose consciousness again when she came around enough to really feel it. As it was she'd slowly opened her eyes to find herself in a brilliantly bright white room. It was empty of any furniture, decorations. Just white floor, white walls, and another pair of chains that had been attached to the wall opposite of herself. Slowly she'd looked up to see if those had been what were holding her up, and was dismayed to find that they were. Shackles were around her wrist, attached to chains that were hung from the ceiling. Her wrists where chained together above her head forcing them to support her weight, though her shoulders were screaming in protest at the strain. If she really stretched her bare toes could touch the cold floor. She couldn't remember changing into these clothes though – a loose simple white shirt and loose cotton pajama bottoms. They were thin and did nothing to help keep her warm. Melinda jerked a little, but the hot pain that flared in her shoulders had stopped her from trying that again. She was sure that that had been at least an hour ago and now the pain was spreading to her upper back and was slowly progressing its way down the rest of her.

No one had come in here to check on her yet. And Melinda was beginning to feel desperate. Why had they brought her here? What did they want from her? What had she done to deserve this?

As if the weekend hadn't been crazy enough – and now her week was turning into a nightmare. Getting fired from her job was the least of her concerns now. She really didn't want her dead body showing up on the beach or in an alley somewhere.

Melinda closed her eyes feeling sick. When had her life gone down the drain and how had it happened so quickly? First the giant turtle, then the men in the black pajamas smashing into her apartment, more giant turtles, waking up in a weird place, stinky sewers, seeing her completely trashed apartment, and now this? Being chained up for who knew how long and who knew what they were going to do to her when they did come in? Were these the men in the black pajamas again? What did they want with her? The turtle was gone. And she couldn't tell them where the other turtles were – although, she had to admit to herself as she thought of her new friend, she wouldn't tell them if she could.

Still, if whoever it was that had her intended to kill her – or whatever they were going to do to her, what would that do to Christine when the police found her body and told her the news? It would crush her. Melinda twisted her wrists inside the cuffs again and winced, sighing she tried to focus on anything other than the hot pain in her shoulders.

Luckily, or unluckily, that distraction came when the door to her small prison was opened. Two men, or she assumed they were men anyway their faces were hidden behind those masks that gave their eyes that fly like appearance because of the material over each eye, stepped into the room. One was thin, muscular and well built. The other was bulkier, all solid muscle and obviously higher ranking than the other.

He said something in a funny language. Melinda had no idea what he said, she really didn't have an ear for foreign languages, she'd failed miserably in her Spanish class in High School. Christine had often teased her that she'd better never get lost if she went to Mexico in case no one there spoke English, because Melinda was more likely to ask which part of the donkey was the rear end rather than ask where a cab station was. But this language definitely wasn't Spanish.

The broader man finished talking and the second thinner man bowed and hurried out of the room. The larger man turned to her and Melinda felt herself go cold as she stared into those creepy bug eyes of that mask. She knew that the eyes behind the mask were not friendly. That this man had no intention of going easy on her just because she was a girl. He had the air about him of someone who had done this before, someone who had killed before, someone who killed without mercy, and without regret. This man was going to hurt her – and if he didn't get whatever he wanted from her, though Melinda had no idea what that was. She wouldn't be leaving here alive to go to the cops about it.

Suddenly she had the deepest sinking feeling of regret. Those turtle creatures had wanted to keep her safe, as scary as some of them were, they had never given her any indication that they were going to hurt her. Suddenly her job with Buddy Potkiss didn't seem as important. Suddenly paying her rent wasn't important, suddenly nothing seemed important. Nothing except for one thing. She was going to die. This man was going to kill her.

* * *

The apartment was quiet, all the lights were on, but it was clearly empty. Raphael waited anxiously outside, watching the shadows carefully his sai drawn as Leo slipped inside to check out the apartment when there was no sign of Melinda from what they could see from the windows. He hadn't planned on confronting her just checking to make sure that she was alright. Raphael didn't like this – the night was almost too quiet for New York. And a familiar sensation was running up his shell. Something that always alarmed him to the fact that something was wrong.

It didn't take Leonardo long to come back, and he didn't look happy, in fact he looked worried, and strained. "She's not there, Raph. But her things are there, a purse and a cell phone. Even if she went out to the store or something she'd need those."

"Well she ain't takin' da trash out either. Da door locked?"

"No."

"Dis ain't good. We gotta get back and tell Donny."

Leo nodded and the brothers hurried back to the rooftops and down the street, back down to the alley, and slipped back into the sewers. They didn't need to talk. If the girl wasn't there but there was no indication that she would've left to run some errands or even go out for a walk there was only one thing that could've happened. The foot had come back for her as they feared, and they would have to get her out of there. In order to do that, they needed to get Don. And they had to make a plan.

* * *

Elizabeth handed Donatello a fresh damp towel for Michelangelo's forehead. "Shouldn't he have woken up by now, Don?"

Don frowned as he gently sponged Michelangelo's face. "He took a pretty hard hit, Elizabeth, and from the stitches here… " his fingers brushed the stitches that Melinda had so carefully stitched into Michelangelo's dark green skin, "it hasn't been the first hard hit he's taken in the last few days." He sighed and lifted Michelangelo's eye lid to check his pupil responses again, but this time he got a reaction, Michelangelo grunted and pulled away, making a face as he tried to turn his head away from his brother.

Don leaned forward eagerly. "Mikey? Mikey? Can you hear me?"

Biting her lip Elizabeth joined Donatello crossing her fingers as she too watched the youngest turtle, who seemed to be fighting his heavy eyelids as he fought his way back to consciousness, but at least he was finally starting to come around. He groaned softly, his fingers twitching on the sheets.

"Mikey? Bro?"

"DONNY!"

Donatello jumped, so did Elizabeth as the front door shut behind the red and blue banded turtles. "Elizabeth stay with him."

"Of course." Elizabeth sat down next to Michelangelo gently taking his hand in hers as Don hurried out of the infirmary.

"You guys able to check in on her?" Don asked as he jogged out to the living room.

The looks on his brothers' faces told him the answer to his question before they even had a chance to answer.

"All the broken windows are boarded up, Donny. We had a hard time looking in, but when we did we saw all the lights were on, but she wasn't there."

Don frowned. "Maybe she had to go run a few errands forgot to turn off the lights."

"I thought that too until I saw her front door was open and her purse and money were still in the apartment, Don."

Don swore scratching the back of his head. "The foot?"

"We ain't sure – but who else woulda taken 'er?" Raph growled.

"We'll have to get her out of there."

"I know, Don, but we need to have a plan. Don can you see where they would be holding someone – break into the Foot tower schematics?"

Don nodded.

"Raph, let's go talk to Master Splinter, we have some details to work out."

Following his oldest brother towards Master Splinter's room, Don hurried back to the lab and quickly sat in his chair, typing furiously on his keyboard.

"Don? What's going on?"

"Melinda wasn't in her apartment, but all her things that she'd need if she was going to go out were there. Leo thinks the Foot might have taken her."

Elizabeth's face paled. The Foot were ruthless and merciless if this Melinda girl didn't give them what they wanted…

Don's eyes narrowed as he began to concentrate on getting past the Foot towers firewalls. If he could scramble their communication devices with a virus it might give them a better chance when they got to Foot headquarters to keep the Foot as unorganized as possible while they got Melinda out of there. He paused as he finally was able to get into the main security grid for Foot headquarters. Perhaps he could do a bit more extensive searching right now… see if Melinda really was there…

Clicking the mouse he navigated through a few more systems, totally focused on his task. Have to get through… just one more… click. Got it! His eyes began to scan the security camera screens as he clicked through them, trying to find the one he would need. Foot ninja training, Foot ninja patrolling, Foot ninja meditating, Karai's office, the library, room after room. Click. Click. Click. Click. Getting frustrated with his fruitless searching he began clicking faster, and almost missed it. A closed secured door with a single small window. But that wasn't what had caught his attention. It was the small lettering in the corner of the camera screen that told him exactly what camera it was that made him pause. Frown deepening he saw movement from within the room, a figure in black moving, and then the door opened and the black clad figure left the room. He seemed perfectly controlled, relaxed even, the door slowly began to swing closed behind him, but before it did Don got a good glimpse of the horror that had gone in that room. Oh shell.

He jumped up, grabbed a few of the gadgets he thought he'd need as well as first aid and medical supplies. "Elizabeth, stay with Mikey!"

Don hurried from the room. "RAPH! LEO!"

* * *

Each breath was a struggled inhale. Each exhale was agony. Melinda's chest hurt. Her face felt swollen, she couldn't see out of her left eye anymore. She could taste copper on her tongue. She could feel something wet and sticky dribbling down her chin. She couldn't feel her right leg, but that was a mixed blessing. It was broken, that she knew, and the break was bad. She couldn't stand looking at the affected limb afraid she would be sick and she wasn't going to be sick all over herself and she knew that the man who had done this wasn't going to give her a bucket to do it. She could hear the steady drip drip of something falling onto the floor, consistent and alarmingly fast. But she could do nothing about it.

He had been furious with her. She had refused to answer any of his questions. She'd kept her jaw clenched, feeling her body jerking time and time again with the blows that had rained down on her. But still she had refused to cave to his demands. Impatience growing with her, he'd finally lost his temper when she refused to answer after several blows and had hoped a higher dose of pain would loosen her mouth. Melinda had heard the crack first and then the pain had blinded her. She had cried out for the first time. But when he'd gotten in her face once again demanding for the location of the turtle's lair she'd clenched her jaw firmly and refused to cave.

She coughed weakly, her chest hurt, her stomach hurt, her shoulders and wrists were in agony, and still the drip drip sound continued steadily. She blinked she was tired. So very tired. All she wanted to do was sleep. Sleep and never wake up from this nightmare. This horrible hell like nightmare that she was in. To wake up and realize it had all been a dream.

A few of her blonde limp curls rolled over her shoulder and down her front, quickly turning the dark red color her shirt was when it touched it. Melinda thought it was kind of funny. She could've sworn that the shirt had been white when she'd first woken up here. But now it was red. Dark red, and seemed to weigh a lot more than it did when she first noticed it. She was so tired… maybe she could just close her eyes just for a minute.

Her eyes rolled, her head dipped forward as she lost the fight for consciousness.

* * *

"How bad is it, Don?"

"From what I saw? Not good."

Raph growled from the front seat as Leo navigated through New York traffic. Don was in the back doing something, adding more and more gadgets to his bag from his Battleshell supplies.

"You know where this holding cell is?"

"Yeah, one level down from the main level. All we have to do is get in and get down there. Security is pretty heavy, but I'm hoping that this virus I've concocted will scramble up their security feeds and communication devices. The longer we can keep them unorganized the better chance we have of getting her out of there without one of us getting hurt or captured."

Leo's jaw ground together. And he pressed on the gas. The Foot were un-honorable, and would stop at nothing until they got what they wanted. He knew this. He knew that letting Melinda go back to her apartment had been a bad idea, and yet he had let her go, he had been the one to walk her back to her apartment and had just left her there with no protection other than a few security cameras, which hadn't even helped. She had probably saved Michelangelo's life when she'd found him and all it was costing her was her own. If they couldn't get to her and soon…

He pressed harder on the gas pedal.

* * *

More pain, sharp and intense brought Melinda around. She cried out, trying to pull open her heavy eyelids.

"Shh… easy, easy, we're going to get you out of here. Leo hurry she's coming around. Raph watch her leg it's broken."

"Raph, go watch the door, make sure no one is coming." Someone else hissed.

Footsteps walking away from her. Melinda slowly tried to peel her eyelids back, to force her eyes to open, they were reluctant and fought her but eventually they slowly opened. Only to reveal three more monsters that were in front of her. One touching her, the other standing above her reaching for her wrists, the third at the door.

"No… no… please… "

"Leo."

"I'm trying, Donny!" A second voice snapped.

There was a click and Melinda would've fallen if somebody hadn't caught her. The pain was overwhelming, bewildering. She felt her good leg lifted and assumed the other had been to because she seemed to be lying down, but floating. She felt sick, dizzy. And terrified. In the arms of a monster as he cradled her to his front. His hard yellow front. It was weird but it seemed almost familiar in a way as if she'd seen it before somewhere.

"We got company," someone growled in a rough heavily accented voice.

Melinda was shifted in the arms that held her, aggravating her already aching, protesting body.

"Don, just carry her. Raph and I can cover you."

"Leo, my bag… there should be some small explosives in there. They should create enough of a distraction that we can get out."

"These?"

"No the other ones."

"These?"

"No not those ones the other ones!"

"These ones."

"Yes that, just open it like… yeah now set the… yeah you got it."

Melinda tried to make sense of all of this but she couldn't. She couldn't focus on this – on them. She hurt and she just wanted to die. Please just let her die! Nothing was worth this pain.

"Raph."

"Right wit' ya, Leo."

"Don, let's go we'll cover you!"

She was rocking in the arms of whoever was carrying her, she was pinned to his front as he tried to keep her steady, tried to support her as he hurried along. She heard yelling, the sound of flesh on flesh, heavy breathing. The clang of metal on metal.

And then the ground began to rumble, or maybe it was just in Melinda's ears. Cold air. Cold, cold air. She heard the sound of something heavy opening and heard someone's breath picking up as he carried her in and then she was on something. She wasn't sure what.

Car doors? Two opened.

"Let's get outta 'ere!"

An engine started up.

"Leo! You're bleeding!"

"We'll deal with it at home, Don."

Melinda's body rocked as the vehicle shot forward. She whimpered.

After several long minutes of silence, and painful prodding on Melinda's part, a voice spoke up again.

"How bad is she, Don? Should I detour to the hospital?"

"I don't think it's safe for her there, Leo. Especially not now that we've come for her. Let's just get her home. I can handle her injuries."

"If you… Don… "

"… a lot o' … blood.. "

Melinda didn't like the sound of the radio kicking in and out. She was just so tired. She felt herself drifting and let the black take her.

* * *

Elizabeth waited anxiously for the brothers to return, knowing full well how dangerous this rescue mission could be, especially as they were missing one of their own. But that they could deal with when they got home. She knew they would have a lot to take in when they got here and a lot to deal with for a while.

"Lion King!"

"No, Akemi, no Lion King."

"YES!"

"No. Go find something else."

Akemi threw herself on the floor and began to scream and kick. Elizabeth sighed. "You keep that up and you'll go to time out with no movie."

Sniffing Akemi ran over to the corner, laid down and began to kick anyway while screaming. She'd been into the habit of doing this lately, putting herself in time out and acting worse in time out than she was when she wasn't in time out.

"Akemi you stop that right… " she stopped as the elevator door opened.

Jumping up Akemi ran to Raphael as he stepped out, flinging herself at him. He caught her, and held her to him. Her arms wrapped around his neck tightly.

Elizabeth hurried forward, all three brothers looked extremely worn and tired. And Melinda was obviously unconscious in Donatello's arms while Leo had his left hand clamped on his right arm even though fresh blood continued to ooze through his fingers.

"Leo! You're hurt."

"It'll be fine, Elizabeth."

"Don, shouldn't you have taken her to the hospital?"

"It's not safe. I'll have to take care of her here. How's Mikey?"

"Well, he woke up about ten minutes ago."

All three brothers' eyes snapped to hers.

"He did?" Raph asked shifting Akemi in his arms.

"How's he feeling? Any sickness? Dizziness?"

"No, but… "

"But what?"

Elizabeth shifted. "But he doesn't remember his own name or you guys and Splinter Guys, Mikey has no idea who he is – he doesn't remember anything."


	13. Chapter 12 Stay

**I am so sorry guys. I've had so much going on these last few weeks that this story has been pushed to the back burner. I've been working on it all week trying to get it done. I am going to work on the next chapter tomorrow, which'll have more Mikey in it, trying to get that started and as far as possible so I can get it posted this upcoming Saturday. I really appreciate your guys' patience and those who take the time to review, I appreciate it and I promise I'll try and do better. Hope everyone had a great weekend and I'll do my best to post again on Saturday. Have a great week. **

* * *

**Chapter 12**

"Wha… what are ya talkin' about?" Raph was the first one who found his voice, although he sounded sick. "He don't know who we are?!"

Elizabeth gave him a sympathetic look as she walked over to him and placed a comforting hand on his arm, trying to reassure him. "It might not be permanent, Raph. Don did say that he took a hard hit to the head, and maybe more than one. It'll be ok, we'll help him through this."

Don frowned. He knew that memory loss was quite common for serious head injuries, but that didn't mean he had any idea on how to care for it. He knew that head injuries were tricky even for the best trained doctors. Brains were just so complex and complicated. He also knew there was a slight chance that the memory loss could be permanent, but until that was proven they were going to try and help Michelangelo recover his memories.

"Of course we will," he agreed with a fierce nod. "I need to get Melinda stabilized and then I can do a more thorough exam on Mikey. See just what we're… "

"Um, Donny?"

Don looked at Elizabeth, confused.

"I don't think we should overwhelm Michelangelo. Seeing all of you might scare him."

"She's right," Don agreed. "For now it'll probably be best if he just sees one of us."

"And we need to get that arm sewn up, Leonardo." Elizabeth said as blood began to drip off Leonardo's arm and onto the ground.

"I can wait for Don, Eliz… "

"Don't be so stubborn! You know he has his hands full with Melinda and Mikey. You won't lose an arm if I patch you up. Just go meet me in the kitchen, I'll get the medical supplies I need and meet you in there in a minute."

If he hadn't been so worried about their youngest brother, Raph would've smirked at the look on his older brother's face. Leo's jaw clenched for half a second before he reluctantly headed for the kitchen, knowing better than to mess with Elizabeth when she got like this. She might be mellow most of the time, but she was like a fire breathing dragon when she wanted to be, and when one of them were injured, she usually acted like a fire breathing dragon when one of them was being stubborn about their injuries. It amused him that his older brother who had taken on Hun and faced the Shredder alone would back down from a five foot two hundred pound girl.

Elizabeth followed Donatello into the infirmary so she could get the supplies she'd need to patch Leonardo up, Don carefully adjusting his own patient, leaving Raph alone with Akemi.

Small hands patted the sides of his face. "Lion King!"

Raph nodded, if it would keep Akemi distracted long enough for Don and Elizabeth to patch everyone up then it would be worth listening to Hakuna Mata for the sixtieth time this week. "Sure, Akemi, go get it and I'll put it in."

Delighted Akemi squirmed until Raph put her down and she scampered over the racks packed with DVDs easily finding the one she desired and ran back to him, waving it triumphantly. She threw herself back into his arms. Raphael gently extracted the movie from her small hand, holding her on his side he managed to get the DVD out of the case and put it in the player. Grabbing the remote and with a worried glance at the infirmary he sat on the couch with Akemi, settling back as the familiar Disney theme started up announcing the Disney DVD that was playing, and he pressed play, starting the movie, Akemi settling herself against him, sucking on her thumb.

* * *

Elizabeth hadn't expected Mikey to be happy when he saw Melinda considering that seemed to be the only name he could remember. But she wished she'd warned Don a little bit better. If Splinter hadn't already been in there Michelangelo would've gotten off the bed despite his injuries when Don carried Melinda in. His face had twisted in concern and worry for her. And despite not knowing her for long it was clear that Melinda had been kind to him and he considered her to be a friend to him.

"Mikey, just stay there, I need to get her patched up and you hovering won't help," Don said as he put Melinda on the second cot.

"Calm yourself, my son." Splinter said softly. Michelangelo looked at him and shifted a little uneasily. He still wasn't quite sure what he made of Splinter.

Elizabeth sighed, this wasn't going to be easy to get used to, and she was worried how Akemi would react when Michelangelo had no idea who she was. She loved playing with Mikey. And for her uncle to have no idea who she was, was going to be devastating to her.

Grabbing the supplies she would need to patch up Leonardo, knowing she might have to come back and help Donatello with Melinda, Elizabeth quickly left the infirmary. She was happy to see that Raph was with Akemi, but wasn't exactly thrilled that he'd put The Lion King on for her. If he started telling her yes when Elizabeth said no she was going to turn them against each other. Elizabeth's jaw clenched. She'd let it go this time, there were bigger concerns than Akemi watching The Lion King again. And at least she had Raph there to keep her company and stop her from going into the infirmary.

Heading for the kitchen she saw Leonardo sitting and waiting for her at the kitchen table. Putting down her supplies she sat next to him. She saw him shift and reluctantly take his hand away from his arm so she could treat it.

Shifting a little closer to the blue banded turtle she gently prodded the wound, opening it to see just how deep it went. Leo shifted again but said nothing, but then again he'd always been pretty stoic, and he was a much better patient than Michelangelo was when it came to needles. Like Raphael, Leonardo would usually sit stoically and allow his wounds to be treated. Donatello was usually full of questions and so curious about what she was doing he never seemed to notice that he was the one being treated. Michelangelo, well he was the complete opposite. He would have to be caught, and Raph would often have to threaten to sit on him in order for him to sit still long enough to be treated.

"It's pretty deep, Leo. I don't think glue is going to hold it, it'll have to be stitched."

"Figured as much," Leo's voice was just as calm and collected as always. Elizabeth resisted the urge to shake her head at his laid back attitude with her news. She gently began to clean out the wound. "How bad was it, Leo?"

"Wasn't that hard getting in and getting to her – the virus for their communications devices worked perfectly like Don anticipated. Getting her out was a bit harder."

Elizabeth shook her head as she picked up her needle and thread. "Must've been a lot of them."

"We've faced worse."

"Well at least this isn't worse than it is. What was it – a katana?"

"Shuriken." Leo said through clenched teeth as Elizabeth, now finished with threading the needle pinched the skin together.

Elizabeth kept her face carefully blank. She knew from experience how sharp shurikens were, she'd cut her hand on one when Raph had been trying to teach her how to throw them. The deep hadn't been too deep but it had sliced through flesh easily without effort, she hated to think how deep a shuriken could go when effort was put into it. She decided to change the subject.

"You think she'll be fighting to get out of here again?"

"Don't think she's in any shape to," Leo said with a frown as he watched her stick the needle into his skin.

"I suppose not, but she's stubborn she's not going to like being trapped down here."

"She's at least safe here, Elizabeth. It's too dangerous for her to go home. They came for her once, they'll come again. Especially now that we've come for her."

"Leo, don't bite my head off. We're on the same side here." Elizabeth said with a frown as she began to tie the stitches. "I'm just saying, considering the fact that she wasn't happy to wake up here in the first place… "

"I know, Elizabeth," Leo said reluctantly. "We'll figure out what to do when she wakes up."

Elizabeth nodded and continued to delicately stitch Leonardo's wound closed. In the other room they could hear "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" playing and Akemi joining along with the DVD. Elizabeth smiled, for a minute she could believe that nothing had changed. That this was just an ordinary night, that everyone was home safe, and that Leo's arm had been the only casualty of the night. But she knew that that wasn't the case tonight. Michelangelo had had no idea any of them were. Michelangelo's body might be home, but their son, brother, and uncle, still felt as gone as he had been two days ago.

* * *

Melinda felt as if she'd been put through a blender, on liquefy. There wasn't a part of her that didn't hurt. Her chest was on fire with every breath she forced into her lungs, something heavy was on her leg, weighing it down, and she felt puffy. Like she'd gained fifty pounds overnight. She shifted and opened up her right eye. Her left eye… well she wasn't even sure if she had one. It felt funny.

Pipes crisscrossed over the ceiling, and the musky smell of the sewer greeted her again. But how had she gotten back here? And what had happened to the men in the black pajamas? She shifted, trying to sit up, but a hand, firm and strong pushed her back.

"No you don't."

Her eye shifted turning to the turtle that was sitting next to her. This wasn't the turtle that had been in her apartment as her guest over the weekend. This was the one wearing the purple mask, not one of the more terrifying turtles wearing the red and blue masks. This one's eyes were warmer, softer, more friendly than the other two turtles had seemed. Although when he'd walked her home Melinda had to admit that the blue masked turtle hadn't made any indication that he was angry with her and hadn't turned that terrifying glare on her. Though she'd felt uncomfortable around him anyway.

The turtle was gently prodding her aching ribs, and Melinda tried to push his hands away.

"D… don't… " Her voice didn't hold the strength she wanted it to. It sounded weak and wheezy, almost breathless, which was fitting since that was how she felt right now.

"Sorry," the turtle drew his hand back. "Just checking your ribs, they're cracked, but not broken."

Cracked. Cracked could be dangerous – if she wasn't careful cracked could become broken. And broken ribs could shift around in the chest if not bound properly, puncturing a lung… or worse.

"How bad is the pain?"

Melinda ignored the question. "W… why am I here?"

The turtle frowned, his eye ridges pulling together. He seemed to be thinking his answer over very carefully before speaking. "It would be too dangerous to take you to a hospital. The Foot will be looking for you."

"Foot?"

"The clan that took you. We got you out."

The monsters that had been in her cell with her. They hadn't been monsters at all. She must've been hallucinating when they'd been in the room with her.

"Ho… how'd you know I was there?"

The turtle shifted uncomfortably, from the look on his face Melinda could tell that he'd been hoping she wouldn't ask him this question.

"Leonardo and Raphael went to check on you at your apartment, you weren't there… so we just did some investigating. We just wanted to make sure you were safe since you helped our brother."

Leonardo, and Raphael. Those were the ones that scared her. Though she couldn't work out which one was which, all these turtles looked so much alike. Although as she stared at the turtle next to her she saw distinct differences between him and the other turtle that she'd cared for, even come to like over the weekend.

His skin was more of an olive green, his muscle mass impressive, but not as impressive as the blue masked turtle that had walked her home. The definition of his muscles wasn't as well toned, and from the way he was sitting now she could tell that he would spend more of his time leaning forward with a book than building up those muscles. His eyes were brown, but they were more a milk chocolate brown than the intimidating dark brown the blue masked turtle had, soft and warm – but Melinda had found that the other turtle's blue eyes had been more inviting, welcoming and friendly. This turtle's tone was welcoming enough and she felt comfortable with him, but it also felt a bit strange.

"Melinda?"

Melinda met his eyes, seeing the questions there.

"You didn't… did the Foot get anything from you? About us, about where we are?"

Melinda went to shake her head but pain spiked in her neck and shoulders. "No. I didn't tell them anything."

The turtle relaxed at once, obviously taking her for her word. He got up moving to a small table and came back with a needle, slipping the sharp point under her skin, at first she was terrified but as the pain eased and slowly drained she relaxed, relieved that the pain was no longer her sole focus.

"That better?" The turtle asked, watching her face.

"Yes, thank you."

He nodded. "Melinda, I have to tell you – it's not safe for you to return to your apartment. The Foot came for you once, they are going to come again. Especially now that we've come for you. If they get you again… there's no telling what they'll do to you."

Melinda swallowed hard. Was he trying to tell her that she could never go home? That she'd be stuck down here in the sewer forever? The thought alone depressed her.

"You have family here in the city? Someone we should try and get out, make it so the Foot can't use them against you?"

Melinda blinked thinking of Christine and Mark, the only family she had left and she silently prayed, grateful that they were so far away.

"No, there's no one."

The turtle seemed to study her thoughtfully for a minute. "You have family?"

"My sister, but she's on the other side of the country."

"Must be hard living so far apart from each other."

"Sometimes it is," Melinda confessed, not sure to why she was. "We only see each once or twice a year. She has a hard time leaving her ranch, they are always so busy – and work usually keeps me tied down here."

He nodded as he sat down again. He reached for a rather old, tired looking mug with a chip in the glass on one side and sipped at the contents.

"How long will I have to stay down here? My job… "

"Your job more important than your life?"

Melinda swallowed hard. She'd worked really hard to get this job, but was it worth dying for?

The turtle sighed. "Look, Melinda, I understand that this doesn't seem fair – and that you've been thrown into something that a lot bigger than you probably understand. But by helping Mikey, you made a very powerful enemy. Believe me when I say that they have no sense of honor. They won't care that you don't know anything, they won't care that you stumbled across Mikey by accident. They won't stop until they get what they want, and since they didn't get it from you last time, they will turn to more drastic means to get information out of you. Karai can be brutal, and she has it in for us and anyone she considers our allies. The only safe place for you here in the city is down here with us. Once it's reported to her that we came for you, that we got you out, she will have the Foot searching the city for you. There will be no where you can hide to get away from her except for right here with us."

Melinda swallowed hard.

"We aren't going to hold you prisoner down here, Melinda. We aren't kidnappers. But I'm asking you, please let us figure out a way to make you safe before you head back to the surface. I promise we will do what we can to help you get back to your daily life up there but it's going to take us time."

Melinda mulled her options over in her head. Staying down here with the turtles, two of which terrified her with their sharp looks and intimidating builds. The red banded one indeed scared her the most. There was just a presence about him that made her want to stay as far away as possible from him.

But on the other hand did she really want to go back only to be taken back to that white room, the room that had had its walls painted with her blood? Which was the lesser of two evils? The purple masked turtle seemed nice enough and she had grown to like the turtle that she'd cared for over the weekend. Maybe she could just avoid the other two turtles and stay out of their way, keeping as far away from them as possible in her forced stay here. If she could then maybe… just maybe. She knew there would be other jobs. And if she really couldn't find another job out here in New York she'd call Christine. She knew Christine would welcome her out there. Not that living on the ranch was more appealing than living in the sewer.

"Ok."

"Ok?"

"Yeah, ok. I'll stay."


	14. Chapter 13

**I am so sorry guys I was trying to get this uploaded faster and it just didn't happen. I am really bad I know. I've had quite a bit going on in my free time the last couple weeks and it has just eaten up my time. So I knew I had to get this chapter up today. A bit shorter but I will try to make up for that in the next chapter. But lots of Mikey in this one like I promise. But is he the same turtle? Thanks again to those who review. I work really hard on this for you guys. Have a great rest of the weekend and week guys. **

* * *

**Chapter 13**

Could his life possibly get any stranger? He had no idea what to make of all this, first those men in the black pajamas and then giant turtles! He was even more shocked when he found out he looked just like them. And then there was the giant rat! He'd been completely confused when he'd woken up down here, in the "lair" or something like that. He thought he'd been alone at first but then he'd seen a slender figure shift next to him. He'd called out for her, thinking it was Melinda. Wanting to make sure those men in the black pajamas hadn't hurt her. But when she'd reached over and turned on the light – it hadn't been Melinda at all.

This girl looked nothing like Melinda. With her long straight brown hair, and heart shaped face with deep emerald colored eyes. Her eyes had been filled with concern for something, or someone. He wasn't sure if it was for him or not but he had no idea who she was, what she wanted from him, or why she had brought him down here and he'd panicked, trying to scramble away from her, nearly falling off the bed, but then a clawed paw had touched his shoulder making him jump and yelp in fright and surprise. He'd turned and his eyes had widened in absolute shock when he'd seen the rat.

This was too much! He had to be dreaming. Or dead. That was it – those black pajama clad men had killed him and he was dead. Or he was dreaming, and it had to be the most bizarre dream he could've ever imagined. Who dreamed of giant rats? Especially giant rats that stood on two legs and wore robes?

"Calm down, Mikey, we aren't going to hurt you," the voice was soft, warm and confused? His eyes had snapped back to the girl who was still sitting next to him, she was leaning forward now, a few strands of her brown hair had fallen over her shoulder and trailed down her front. She held a glass of water in front of him. "Drink this."

He took it from her, drinking from it deeply, keeping his eyes on them both warily.

"How do you feel my son?"

The water spat out of his mouth in a fountain as he choked, hitting himself in the chest as he tried to suck in air to his wheezing lungs. Son?!

The girl had quietly grabbed a towel and cleaned up the water. He'd wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, stopping a dribble of water from running off his chin.

The rat had frowned, his long bald pink tail twitching as his fingers had tightened on his shoulder. He'd tried to shake him off. It felt funny having those sharp claws just touching the surface of his skin. The rat seemed to sense his sense of unease and removed his hand. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he been holding in relief. Grateful that he was no longer being touched.

The girl was frowning and looking at the rat, then at him questioningly. The rat's whiskers had twitched a little and his black eyes had locked onto him, penetrating him with a dark gaze that made him really uncomfortable. He didn't like it. He didn't like being stared at. He felt like a bug under a microscope that someone was about to squash.

"Mikey, are you alright?"

Thinking the girl was talking to the rat he'd looked at the rat questioningly. The rat had looked at him in concern, his clawed hand tightening on a walking stick that he hadn't noticed before. His black eyes seemed to be searching for something, though he wasn't sure what. He'd looked away, uncomfortable with the rat's stare and looked back at the girl, but she was looking at him the same way. He looked at her surprised.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

Her green eyes had shot up to the rat and back. "Mikey?"

He'd frowned. He was getting angry, and confused. "Who is Mikey?"

Michelangelo rolled over sitting up in the soft bed. Last night had been a hard night, confusing and strained. He rubbed his temple. Mikey – his name was Mikey and everyone here seemed to know him. So how come he didn't know any of them?

It hadn't been too long after he'd demanded to know who "Mikey" was that the girl's head had whipped around. "They're back… I'd better warn them, Master Splinter."

The rat had merely nodded, his eyes still on him. Mikey had shifted uncomfortably getting more and more uncomfortable with the rat's stare.

He'd heard hushed and strained voices outside this room, and then much to his surprise, a giant turtle had come in carrying Melinda.

"NO!" He'd tried to get up but the rat, much stronger than he appeared had pushed him back to the mattress.

"You must not get in the way, my son."

Melinda was pale, and still, her eyes closed and her clothes soaked in blood. What had happened to her? Why did she look like someone had put her in a blender? She looked awful. One of her legs was sprawled at an unnatural angle, her breathing sounded like she was trying to breathe through a clogged straw. Her golden blond curls were matted and clung to her damp shirt. It looked like someone had hit her in the face with a brick.

The turtle working over her had ignore him and the rat, working frantically over her. Mikey hadn't even noticed the other girl coming in and grabbing some medical supplies before hurrying out again. She didn't come back for nearly an hour, and when she did she helped the purple masked turtle with the girl.

Mikey had watched until his eyes were too tired to stay open and then they'd closed against his will.

But this wasn't the room he'd fallen asleep in. This room was very different. The bed more comfortable, his head propped up by several pillows, toys and comic books were everywhere, empty pizza boxes, empty soda cups, and candy wrappers were scattered all over the floor. Whoever lived here needed to learn how to clean their room. Stretching his toes he felt something wet and squishy touch it. Making a face he pulled the blanket off only to discover a stashed piece of pizza at the end of the bed.

"Blech," he muttered grabbing the crust between two fingers as if it would come alive and bite him, he pulled the cheesy goo off his toes and dropped that and the pizza into the trash. What kind of person, or turtle, kept pizza in the bed? Wiping his toes on the floor he took another look around. But the room seemed to be nothing but garbage and comic books. There was a small desk on the other side of the room with a small lamp resting on it, but the rest of it was in total disarray, covered with scattered papers and half drawn pictures. Curious as to what the messy owner of this room would draw, and careful not to step in any of the scattered garbage or slippery comic books, he made his way to the desk.

Picking up a notepad and flipping through the pages, he quickly discovered that whoever had drawn these really liked some character named the "Turtle Titan". Whoever he was. But he seemed to be the hero in all of these always grinning triumphantly and beaming with his hands on his hips, his cape waving in the wind. Weird.

He put the pad back on the desk top and thumbed through a few of the loose pages there on the desk, but those all had the same theme. Comic book heroes with the Turtle Titan right in the middle of the action.

A soft knock at the door had him dropping the papers. He didn't want to look like he was snooping. The door opened a crack and the blue masked turtle looked inside, then pushed the door open all the way seeing that he was awake.

"Hey, you're awake."

Not quite sure if he was supposed to say something to this obvious statement or not Mikey just blinked, staring at him.

"Um… breakfast is ready, if you're hungry."

"Oh…um ok, thanks, um… what's your name again?"

The other turtle's face fell obviously disappointed though he quickly tried to mask that as he gave him a sympathetic smile. "Leonardo. You can call me Leo."

"Uh… ok Leonardo. I'll be down in a minute."

The blue masked turtle, Leonardo, nodded and left without another word.

Mikey didn't move from where he sat. It felt weird to go down and join those turtles for a meal. They might know him but he had no idea who they were, or why they knew him. He wasn't sure if he really liked this "Mikey" that they all seemed so anxious to help him remember. If all he did was lay around and read boring comic books and eat junk food while leaving garbage all over the place he wasn't sure if he wanted that turtle back. Or why they would either.

Deciding it best not to go down and disappoint them with the turtle he wasn't, he instead began to clean up the disgusting room, piling up all the comic books in the corner to be thrown away later, while gathering all the garbage, leftover food, and boxes into a large bag.

* * *

"He coming down, Leo?"

Leo sat down next to Raph and across from Donatello. Elizabeth had Akemi on her lap, and was trying to get her to eat some fresh strawberries and orange slices but Akemi had gotten rather picky lately and had refused to eat most fruit.

"No! No! No!" Akemi shoved Elizabeth's hand away forcefully pushing her bottom lip out in a pout. "Cucky!"

"Akemi, eat your breakfast," Elizabeth said with a frown.

Akemi slapped her hand and the orange slice flew behind Don just before he leaned back, the result was a squished orange slice and orange juice running down his shell. Elizabeth's cheeks reddened. But Don didn't seem to have noticed. He was sipping his coffee and staring at Leo waiting for an answer.

Leo sighed as he went to get the tea kettle, now whistling, from the stove for his tea. "He said he was, but he might've just been saying that to humor me."

"Give him time, let his mind heal, guys. It's not going to happen overnight. Just being down here with you will help, back home with his family where things are familiar, or were familiar to him. Anything could trigger his memory. But we don't want to push him too far with it either, that could do more damage than good."

"Elizabeth is right, my sons. While it is hard, patience often wields great rewards." Splinter looked at Leonardo as he put a cup of tea in front of him and thanked him with a simple nod. "For now we must support your brother and hope that his memory will return on its own."

"What 'bout dis Melinda girl?" Raph asked with a frown as he reached for the plate of sausages.

"What about her, Raph? You know we can't move her yet."

"Yeah, but she ain't gonna wanna stay down 'ere ferever… an' when she wants ta get outta 'ere, den what?"

"This isn't a prison, Raph," Leo said with a frown.

Donatello sighed as he stood up to refresh his coffee, the squished slice of orange slid onto the seat of his chair. "We can only try to hope she'll listen to reason, Raph. Tell her it isn't safe for her here in the city, that if she really insists on going that she should get out of New York. Find somewhere else or someone else to go stay with. That way at least she wouldn't be alone."

The kitchen was silent for a minute, the strong smell of hot coffee got stronger as Don poured some more into his cup.

"An' what if she don't wanna leave da city?"

"Raph, I think she'll be more willing to listen to us now." Don pointed out as he sipped at his coffee heading back to his chair.

"Yeah… maybe… "

"She isn't going to want to go through the Foot again, Raph." Elizabeth pointed out. "She's not stupid."

"If she doesn't want to leave the city we'll have to figure out a safe place for her to… YEOW!"

Don, who had sat back down on his chair leapt up as the cold slice of orange squished under his legs, effectively ending that conversation.

* * *

Elizabeth sighed as she closed the nursery door, Akemi down for her nap. Hearing the TVs playing she started for the stairs but paused when she heard the activity in Michelangelo's room. Hesitating she knocked and pushed open the door.

She was startled when she saw the room clean. Michelangelo notoriously known for being untidy, Elizabeth had always had to make sure that Akemi had been carefully watched when she'd first learned to crawl and had had a tendency to put anything and everything she found into her mouth. Elizabeth had often had to pull out parts of action figures or candy wrappers that Michelangelo had left lying around out of Akemi's mouth.

To see the room so clean now seemed unnatural. And the one doing the cleaning really startled her. Michelangelo was scrubbing a bit of dried cheese off the floor. If Elizabeth didn't know better she would've thought that this was Leonardo's room. Leonardo had always kept everything neat and tidy, Raph had been doing better with that since she'd moved in, especially after Akemi had been born. But even then Leonardo was still the neatest of the four brothers. But this… this was so unnatural.

The comic books had been piled in one corner, a large garbage bag next to them, two more large bags of garbage were in the middle of the room, waiting to be taken out.

"Mikey, what are you doing?"

The turtle jumped, and spun, obviously startled, automatically taking a defensive position. Obviously not all his ninja training had deserted him. Elizabeth didn't move, she knew how quickly the turtles could move and how they reacted to being startled. Memory or not Mikey might accidentally hurt her without meaning to.

But after a minute his stance relaxed. "Oh, um hi Emily."

"Elizabeth," Elizabeth corrected quietly.

She saw his face darken a little in embarrassment with his mistake.

"Right, Elizabeth, sorry."

"It's ok, Mikey." Elizabeth said with a shake of her head. "But… what are you doing with all your stuff?"

"Throwing it out. It's just cluttering it up in here and is making a mess." Michelangelo grabbed a couple of action figures, one looked like the Silver Sentry, into the bag. His bright blue eyes roamed the room finding the last action figures he had and tossed them into the bag before tying it shut. "Who plays with all this crap anyway?"

Elizabeth felt her heart sink to her stomach. Michelangelo loved those action figures. She knew that Raph often teased Mikey about playing with "dollies", but she also knew that Raph really didn't mind all that much. It was just a part of who Michelangelo was. To see him throwing them into a bag like trash…

But he wasn't done there. As if remembering the comic books Michelangelo walked over to them and began to toss them into the empty bag.

"Don't you want to keep those?"

"Why would I? Who reads those stupid things?"

If Mikey ever got his memory back… if he ever found out what he'd done to his precious comic book and action figure collections what would he do?

"Want some help? I could take some of that stuff to the trash for you since you don't know where it is."

He just nodded a little as he kept throwing more comic books into the bag. Elizabeth walked into the room, grabbing the bag of trash and the bag of action figures. She walked down to her own room, depositing the bag of action figures inside. She'd talk to Raph and the others and figure out where they could store Michelangelo's things until he got his memory back. But for now it would be safe in there.

Closing the door she took the bag of trash to the bin and returned just as Michelangelo was tying up the first bag.

"Need to get another bag," he muttered. He brushed past her.

Elizabeth grabbed the bag handles and hauled it up. It was heavy and the bag was threatening to tear under the weight of the comics he'd thrown into it. Elizabeth settled for half carrying half dragging the bag out of the room, praying that it would tear. Someone must've been listening, because there was only a couple small holes in the bottom, though the bag looked stretched and torn by the time she made it to her own room. Opening the bag she pulled out a few of the comic books. The pages were bent and rumpled, some of them even torn.

Elizabeth tried to straighten out the pages with her hands, though it was of little use, they just crinkled right back up again. Elizabeth drew a sharp breath. She had to talk to the brothers. They had to do something. Leaving the comic books in the bag for now she hurried to find the others. Knowing Mikey would thank her for this later, when he was himself again.


	15. Chapter 14 Family?

**Hey everyone. Hope everyone has had a good week so far. I have no idea what my weekend is going to be like and I've been working on this for a while so I thought I'd better get it posted now while I was thinking about it since I am running around for most of the weekend. I am sorry about the delay again. I tried to make sure I could get this chapter finished so I could get it posted this week. And it's a bit longer this time as well. So again sorry about the delay and thank you again for all those who take the time to review. I'll be back again soon - work is busy and has been hard lately so... I won't go into boring details. But let's just say it's had me stressed out a lot lately. Have a good weekend everyone!**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

The brothers' reaction to Mikey throwing out his things had been about what Elizabeth had expected. At first she'd been met with disbelief but after convincing them to go up to the room that she and Raph shared and they had seen the evidence for themselves there was no denying the truth. Mikey had indeed thrown out all his things.

"What da shell? Why would he t'row all des out?" Raphael asked as he pulled out a very crumpled looking comic book, a few pages had tears long enough to stretch halfway up the pages, ruining the pictures. Raph ran his fingers over the torn paper, frowning. Confused at Mikey's behavior.

"He doesn't really know what he's doing, Raph," Don said though the look on his face matched Raph's. He was worried about Mikey, and not just because Mikey was throwing out his most prized possessions. He knew that it wasn't Mikey's fault, that Mikey had no idea what he was doing, and if he were in his right mind he wouldn't be throwing out his things, but still… even with no memory none of them had expected this.

"We have somewhere we can keep these for him don't we, Don? So that they are there for him when his memory comes back." Elizabeth had extracted a Silver Sentry comic and was trying to flatten out the crumpled up pages, but they refused to flatten out. They stayed crumpled, a few of them torn, there were even a few pages that seemed to be hanging oddly, the comic was badly damaged, it would have to be replaced. And she knew that it wasn't the only one that would have to be replaced.

"Yes, we can take them to the lab, probably be best if we get boxes for them though. Some of these have already been badly damaged," Don said his frown deepening as he flipped through the pages of another comic.

"I can go get some boxes, you can usually buy them at office supply places and they are never too expensive," Elizabeth volunteered. She could also make a list of the comics that had been badly damaged and see if she could stop by the comic book store, see if they had copies of any of them and replace the damaged ones.

Don nodded his agreement. "When we get them in boxes we can take them downstairs. There's a shelf we can use for storing them on in my lab – Mikey will never know they are there."

Only one turtle didn't seem happy about this. Raphael was scowling, his arms crossed over his plastron, amber eyes blazing behind his mask giving him a dangerous look. "Ya ain't goin' alone, 'Lizabeth!"

"Raph," Elizabeth tried to soothe, but Raphael was having none of it.

"NO!"

His shout was so definite it made Elizabeth jump. She knew that Raph usually remained calm and patient with her, but even he had his breaking points and it seemed as if he were getting close to his.

"Ya ain't goin' alone! Not wit' da increased gang activity topside!"

"Raph," Elizabeth kept her voice calm, trying to stop Raphael from shouting and waking up Akemi. "I can take care of myself. You've been training me to… "

"Ya 'aven't been trainin' fer dat long! A couple o' years! Mikey's been trainin' all o' 'is life an' look what h'ppened ta 'im!"

"Raphael, calm down."

"NO! Ya ain't goin' alone! It ain't safe an' I ain't gonna let what h'ppened ta 'im h'ppen ta ya too!"

Elizabeth frowned, studying the turtle she loved. She could see the anger there, the fear, the worry, and something else. Before she could say anything Leonardo spoke up.

"He has a point, Elizabeth. It is too dangerous for you to go topside alone. The foot have their ways of knowing who's allied themselves with us, if they see you alone they'll view you as a target to try and get to us. We'll call April, she usually has a few old boxes she doesn't need anymore that she could give us. And we won't have to go topside in order to get them – we'll just use the sewer entrance in her basement. That way we don't run the risk of anymore ambushes, we don't need anyone else down right now."

Elizabeth sighed but didn't argue the matter further. She knew that they all had valiant points. But she knew she would have to go topside sooner rather than later. She was running low on some of her own personal supplies like toothpaste and feminine supplies. There were just some things she insisted on getting herself. She knew that she was going to have to go soon. She was already a few days late, a mixed blessing since she only had a day's worth of supplies left. She would have to convince the turtles to let her go. Maybe if she played to another factor…

"He'll notice how damaged some of these are," Elizabeth pointed out as she held up one of the comic books, waving the wrinkled pages at them.

"Dat ain't our fault."

"Raph, Mikey loves these."

"Ya ain't goin' alone!"

"Raph, I need to go topside anyway! We are running low on supplies."

"Nothin' dat important."

"I beg to differ!"

"'Lizabeth!"

"Raphael, if it makes you feel better I'll ask Casey and April to go with me! But I don't have a choice I'm going to have to go get more supplies sometime."

"Dey can get dem."

"Not these!" She insisted with a scowl, matching his own.

He glared at her, his jaw clenched so tightly that Elizabeth could see a muscle jump in the muscle along his jawline. His hands clenched into fists. His amber eyes were blazing, but she looked steadily back. Raphael had never hit her, she knew he wouldn't start now. She loved him, but at times like this she found him and his brothers a bit smothering. Not something she was entirely used to.

If he was acting like this now what would he say when she told him that her parents wanted her to go down to the ranch for a few days so they could see Akemi? She knew that always calling them from a blocked number where they couldn't call her back and never giving them a phone number worried them, but she had to protect her new family. She sighed, now wasn't the time to think about it. Not with Mikey hurt, confused, and having no idea who he was. Not with his brothers so tense and worried, and not with their new guest. She was needed here. Her parents would just have to wait for now.

"Lizabeth… " Raph said in a low growl making her eyes snap to his, his tone told her what he was going to say before he'd even spoken the words. There was no way he was going to even consider letting her go topside with so much Foot activity up there.

"Raph!" Leonardo's sharp tone cut through the tension like a knife. Raph's glare turned to him instead. Leonardo's own dark brown eyes met his brother's glare steadily, calmly, intimidated. "Elizabeth, we'll talk to Casey and April about going on a supply run." He never looked away from his brother. Raphael growled.

Elizabeth opened her mouth, her cheeks going pink with the idea of Casey picking out her tampons.

"If it is necessary for you to go," Leonardo continued before she could speak. "Raphael is right, you aren't going alone. Casey and April will go with you, and I'd feel better if one of us was with you too."

What was he talking about? He couldn't just go into the store like everyone else.

"Leo," Elizabeth began to argue.

"Elizabeth, I told you, the Foot have ways of knowing who our friends are! They won't hesitate to get you if they get the chance. We don't want what happened to Melinda to happen to you."

Raphael growled, his hands automatically going to his sai in his belt.

Elizabeth sighed but nodded, knowing that the argument was over. She also knew that if one of the turtles went it meant that they would have to go at night so the turtles could either hide in the battle shell, or wait on the roof, keeping a look out. But she wasn't comfortable with one of the turtles keeping watch by themselves, she could tell that Leonardo was thinking the same thing as his dark brown eyes shot to Raphael and then Donatello, barely concealing the worry there.

He blinked and Elizabeth saw his eyes harden a little. "Don, call April and ask her about the boxes, and tell her we'll need to go on a supply run."

"Sure, Leo," Don agreed. He pulled his shell cell from his pocket and headed for his lab, Elizabeth could hear the muted conversation as he vanished from sight.

Elizabeth looked back at Raphael. He was still glaring at her, clearly not at all happy with Leo's decision about letting her go topside. She had no doubt in her mind that he would want to go up there with her, keeping watch. The thought of Raphael up there alone, waiting for her, unaware that Foot soldiers were closing in, ready to try and do him in like they had with Mikey made her blood go cold. She couldn't let that happen. She had to keep him safe.

Elizabeth stepped closer to the red banded turtle, she put a soft hand on his arm and the other touched the side of his face, her fingers brushing just under his mask. "Raph… "

"I don't like dis, 'Lizabeth," Raph growled.

"I'll be with Casey and April, Raph, nothing is going to happen." Elizabeth said trying to making him believe her.

She knew that Casey would fight long and hard before he let anything happen to her or April. He loved April, she was his wife, his soul mate. And Raphael was his best friend, as a result, he'd really taken a liking to Elizabeth because she made Raphael so happy. Though she knew at times he jokingly complained that Raphael had become soft.

Raphael would quickly correct this with a wrestling match that would leave Casey breathless and pinned underneath the almost two hundred pound turtle.

Raphael looked into her emerald green eyes, she stared back into his amber orbs, seeing the pain there, the worry and stress. He was trying to mask it all behind the anger, fight back the way he always did, but this time his mask was crumbling and Elizabeth could see right through it. His hand came up, his thumb stroking her jaw, and then he tilted her head back and brought his mouth to hers.

Elizabeth had shared many kisses with Raphael, sweet and tender, passionate and intense. But nothing like this. This was sure desperation. As if he thought she would vanish right before her eyes if he didn't hold her close. As if this were the last time he'd ever see her. His desperation frightened her much more than his anger ever had. His free hand held her around her slim waist, pulling her closer.

Elizabeth never heard Leonardo quietly walk away to give them some time alone, she never heard any of them coming or going. But she wouldn't have noticed now anyway. Nothing existed in this moment except for her and the turtle that she loved with all her heart.

* * *

"I'm sure I've got some boxes that would hold all of those, Don," April said much to Don's relief. "When do you guys plan on coming to get them?"

"Tomorrow night I suppose," Don said as he leaned back in his chair.

"Everything ok, Don?"

Don rubbed his temple. "Besides Mikey not knowing who he is you mean?"

"Don, we both know that amnesia isn't that uncommon when head injuries are involved, and most of the time it isn't permanent."

Don sighed, he clicked the mouse pulling up the multiple pages on the search engine he'd been looking into on his brother's condition. From what he'd researched so far Mikey had retrograde amnesia, and from what he read his brother's memories would come back when exposed to things that were familiar to him, but the time frame in which he would recall those memories wasn't precise, it could take days, weeks, months or years for Mikey to be himself again. The thought of this empty shell that used to be his brother, acting so un-Mikey like was unbearable.

"Don?" April's voice was tinged with worry.

"Yeah, I'm here, sorry, April."

He heard her sigh on the other end of the line.

"Don, you should go get some rest. Mikey is going to need his brothers to help him through this, you won't do him or anyone else any good if you are exhausted. I'll find those boxes for you and talk to Casey about the supply run. Let us know when Elizabeth wants to go and we'll go with her ok?"

"Yeah, ok, April. Thanks."

"Night, Donny."

"Night," Don snapped his shell cell shut, frowning as he clicked opening up a few of the articles again.

Retrograde amnesia refers to inability to recall memories before onset of amnesia. Well that definitely fit Mikey's condition, he had no idea who any of them were or who he was. Retrograde is usually caused by head trauma or brain damage to parts of the brain besides the hippocampus. Did Mikey have brain damage? Did this mean he would never remember who he was or who they were? Would he just form new memories, a clean slate? Retrograde amnesia is usually temporary and can be treated by exposing them to memories from the loss. Were the just supposed to keep trying to jog his memory?

He had done some more research that some old stories about themselves had helped jog some retrograde amnesia patients' memories. Maybe they should try that with Mikey… or show him some old photographs, those seemed to help too. They wouldn't give up, Don refused to give up. He couldn't let Mikey stay like this forever. He was his only little brother, he had to fix this… he had to help Mikey.

Standing he went to get some coffee, it was going to be another long, sleepless night. He had a lot of research to do.

* * *

He awoke to the smell of something sweet and inviting. After he'd finished cleaning out his room the day before and having Emily… no, no, Elizabeth… or was it Erin… well it started with an E anyway, help him with taking those books out to the trash he'd found himself oddly very tired and had laid down, not realizing just how tired he was until now.

Glancing at the clock it said it was almost eight-thirty. He'd slept the rest of the night and rather soundly as well. He blinked as he sat up, trying to recall what he'd dreamed about. Those turtles had been in it, he'd been with them and they'd been doing something. But he couldn't recall the dream that well. The more he tried the fuzzier it became. Standing up he neatly made his bed, making sure the covers were pulled tight and there weren't any wrinkles in the blankets.

Then stomach grumbling it's protest about his skipped dinner the night before he cautiously made his way out of the room. Now… where did he go? There were four more doors up here. Two of them were still closed. As he walked slowly down towards the stairs he glanced curiously into the rooms as he passed.

One had a king size bed in it, the pillows had been propped against the wall, the red comforter had been smoothed out so there were no wrinkles. Some work out equipment sat in the corner, a few dumb bells, and a few other things that he didn't recognize. Some books had been put on a shelf on the wall, but Michelangelo could make out what the tiles were and he wasn't going to go snooping to see what they were.

The next room looked like it had been empty all night. This one had beakers on the floor and what looked like random objects, springs, odds and ends here and there. How strange. Who kept those kinds of things lying around, the purple comforter was rather rumpled, tossed aside as if the owner of this room had been too preoccupied to make the bed when he'd woken. Science books the size of encyclopedias lay in a neat stack on a small desk, along with the weirdest pair of glasses Michelangelo had ever seen.

Tearing his eyes away from the odd contents of the room he headed downstairs. There had to be a bathroom somewhere, and the smell was growing more and more enticing by the minute. The smell of frying bacon had joined the sweet smell of breakfast breads. There was something else he couldn't identify as well.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs he noticed the TV was on, though no one seemed to be watching it. A news report was on, the report again commenting on the increased gang activity. More and more people were becoming victims to these gangs, several of them ending up in the hospital with injuries.

This place sure was strange. How many TVs were over there? More than a dozen. But why would they need so many in the first place? And where had they gotten them? He had a feeling that they couldn't just go up to the nearest electronic store and buy them.

As if that weren't enough there were two bookshelves that were packed with DVDs , and what looked like another bookshelf that was in the process of being put together on the floor next to them. For more DVDs? Who needed so many?

"London Bridge is falling down! Falling down! Falling down! London Bridge is falling down! My fair lady!"

"Akemi, you stop throwing things!"

Turning Michelangelo headed for the room where the voices were coming from. He paused, they had a kitchen down here too? The girl with long brown hair… what was her name?... had her back to him as she worked on the stove stirring something. A toddler, no older two or three was skipping around the table with what looked like blackberries in her hands, still singing her song. Every time she sang "falling down" she'd toss a few berries into the air so she could watch them fall to the ground.

"Akemi! You want a time out!"

"NO!"

"Then you stop throwing those berries and pick up the ones of the floor right now before they get squished and make a mess!"

At this Akemi looked at her mother, then at a berry and deliberately squished it with her toes making juice bleed onto the floor.

"I'm going to count to three!" Elizabeth warned with a frown.

Akemi ran over to another berry and squished that.

"One!"

Akemi squished a third.

"Two!"

Akemi turned, pausing and looked back at her mother to see if she really meant it, foot poised to squish another berry.

"Three… "

Akemi still watched, curious then deliberately squashed the berry under her toes.

That did it for Elizabeth, tapping the wooden spoon against the pot she was cooking on she removed it from the heat, turned off the burner and walked over picking Akemi up who began to howl. Elizabeth frowned and then finally noticed Michelangelo for the first time.

"Oh, morning, Mikey."

"Morning… um… "

"Elizabeth." Elizabeth said keeping her voice friendly. Warm. "You hungry?"

He nodded and she beamed.

"Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes, just let me go take care of her and I'll be right back."

He nodded again and watched as she carried Akemi out of the room and upstairs.

He sat down at the table, scratching absent-mindedly at the itchy bandages that were bound around his broken arm. This place sure was strange. It seemed like there was no end to the surprises down here.

"Morning, Mikey."

Michelangelo's blue eyes snapped to the entrance to the kitchen as the blue masked turtle came in. Louie… lion… Leo! He remembered his name was Leo! He was relieved that he at least remembered one of their names.

"Morning, Leonardo."

"Just, Leo," Leo said with a soft smile. He headed for the stove where a kettle was whistling, something that Elizabeth had obviously put on the stove for him. He reached into the cupboard pulling out a mug and a tea bag. Pouring the hot water into the mug he made himself some of the rather welcoming smelling beverage and sat down across from Michelangelo.

"Mornin' Leo… Mikey… " Raph yawned as he walked into the kitchen, making a face at Leo's choice of beverage he sat down next to his blue masked brother and poured himself some orange juice, second later he jumped up making a face, wiping something black off the back of his legs. "Ugh!"

Michelangelo forced a smile, seeing Leonardo looking very amused over the top of the tea cup he was sipping from. It felt strained and forced. He was sure that the other two knew this as well but they didn't say anything.

With a snort of disgust the red masked turtle went to clean the goop off his legs, and then clean it off his chair.

A few minutes later the purple masked turtle came in, heading straight for the coffee pot and mumbling a good morning as he poured himself a fresh cup.

The blue masked turtle frowned.

"Don, did you ever go to bed last night?"

"I had to finish up a few things, Leo."

"Don, if you don't stop with these all-nighters… "

"Leo, it was important." Don said firmly as he sat down next to Michelangelo. The smell of freshly brewed coffee hit Mikey's nose. His beak wrinkled a little, not at all sure if he cared for that smell.

And then Elizabeth was back, hurrying back to the stove to finish whatever she had been cooking before. Raphael threw the soiled towel into the sink and walked over to her, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissed her neck. She smiled, covering his arm with her free arm, cradling it there.

Leonardo was trying to persuade Donatello to go take a nap after breakfast and Donatello was doing his best to explain why he didn't have the time for such things.

It was a comfortable atmosphere, one relaxed and full of friends and family who were comfortable with each other. Who loved and cared for one another.

And one that Michelangelo didn't belong in. He barely knew these people and despite the hopes he knew they had that he would remember them. He had his doubts. This might be a nice family, and happy one. But it wasn't his.


	16. Chapter 15 Patience

**Sorry guys - I had to send my laptop in for repairs which accounted for the delay in the update this time. I do apologize about that. Anyway thank you again for those who've taken the time to review as always, really do appreciate it guys and I'll work on getting this updated again soon, really appreciate your patience. **

* * *

**Chapter 15**

Raphael had never really considered himself a patient turtle. His patience was often tested at the best of times. Little things often ground on his nerves pushing his ever often uncontrollable temper to the surface. Leo always seemed to be the one that could push that button faster than anyone else, and Raphael would often explode at his oldest brother, relieved to finally have something or someone to release all that built up tension on. But these days it wasn't Leonardo that was pushing his buttons. It wasn't Leonardo's fault that Michelangelo didn't know who they were, it wasn't Leonardo's fault that Michelangelo avoided them, it wasn't Leonardo's fault that Raphael hadn't stopped Michelangelo from going out that night alone, it wasn't Leonardo's fault that Michelangelo had gotten hurt, it wasn't Leonardo's fault that Michelangelo acted as if they were all strangers. If he were going to be honest with himself, it was his fault. Michelangelo could've been stopped that night, Raphael could have gone with him to that stupid comic book convention. Elizabeth would've understood, Raphael could've prevented all of this. But no he'd been all too eager to have some quiet downtime, to just relax, knowing all too well that the gang activity hand increased topside, that it was dangerous, that no one should've been topside alone.

"Raphael," Elizabeth said with a frown as she sat running a brush through her long dark hair, the bristles easily getting through the few tangles there. "Stop pacing. It's not helping."

"It's been two weeks, Lizbeth, how much longer is it gonna take?"

"You heard, Don. These things take time, Raph. Just be patient," Elizabeth said as she tried to soothe her boyfriend.

Raph growled and turned to pace the length of the room once again. "I've been patient! I'm tired 'o 'im flinchin' away from us every time we get close ta 'im!"

Elizabeth sighed. "Raph, he's still adjusting. He's doing better."

Raph snorted in disagreement. Glaring at the floor, the muscles in his arm flexing in his agitation. Elizabeth shook her head putting her brush down and stood up, the silk spaghetti strap night gown she was wearing brushing against her thighs as she walked over to the frustrated turtle. She put her hands on his arms, blocking his path. His eyes snapped up to meet hers, those amber eyes flaring behind his mask.

"Raph, this wasn't your fault. You need to stop blaming yourself for Mikey's injuries."

"I shouldn't 'o let 'im go alone, 'Lizbeth. I shoulda know better. I did know better."

"Raph, what's done is done, you can't change the past – you can't change what happened. All we can do now is try to help Mikey through this until his memory comes back. It will come back, Raph we just have to be patient."

"An' what if he don't ever remember us? What if he don't wanna remember us?"

"Raph, you can't think like that. You're his brother of course he's going to remember you. Amnesia isn't an exact science… there's no way of knowing when his memory will come back. Anything at any time could trigger it. We just have to try and keep reminding him of things that could help trigger it. That's the best we can do and hope that it won't take too much longer before Mikey comes back to us. It'll be ok."

Releasing one of his arms she put her hand up touching the side of his face. He leaned into her touch, squeezing his eyes shut and then nuzzled her hand with his beak, his hand gently grabbing her wrist as he took in the soft scent of coconut that seemed to cling to her. Elizabeth pretended not to notice the tear that splashed down into his mask.

Reaching up with her other hand she touched his mask, reaching for the knot. He didn't stop her. His hand still clamped onto her wrist sliding down her arm a little as she reached for his mask with both hands Elizabeth gently began to untie the knot, and then pulled his mask off.

Those rich amber eyes looked at her face once again and Elizabeth folded the mask, setting it down, before her hand cupped his neck, and she pulled him closer, encouraging him to her. She could feel his warm breath on her neck.

"You need to relax. Come on let's go to bed."

Raphael didn't say anything but allowed her to lead him to the bed, gently pushing him down onto the mattress. He felt her body settle on top of his, leaving a trail of soft kisses up his neck, his jaw and his arms wrapped around her back automatically, pulling her close, needing her right now. Things were so out of control, so screwed up. His family so worried about Mikey. His hands slid up her back, feeling the smooth soft material of her nightgown, lifting it a little. She pressed her body closer to him, and felt her lips touch his, and he was kissing her back, his right hand moving up clenching in her hair as his left found the soft skin of her back, feeling her shiver as a finger trailed up her spine. She groaned a little as her fingers trailed down his front, feeling the small imperfections in his plastron. He felt warmth flooding through his gut. A familiar pleasant feeling and marveled in that.

It never ceased to amaze him that he was this lucky, that he had Elizabeth. That she loved him. That she wanted to be with him like this. So close. That she saw him as someone incredible. She was incredible. He was the luckiest turtle in the world. His hand released her hair cupping her cheek, as he deepened the kiss, gently rolling over pressing her to the mattress and he settled on her. For now lost in the moment that they had together. Just the two of them.

* * *

Melinda was relieved that she was no longer trapped in that weird makeshift medical room, the guest room was much friendlier. And it was nice to have some clean clothes to change into. Though the cast the turtle had put on her broken leg made it impossible for her to wear anything but baggy bottoms she could at least wear the shirts she wanted to. And now that the ugly black, blue and purple bruises had healed she had stopped wearing the baggy shirts that she normally wore to bed under normal circumstances since they had been the best clothing to help hide those ugly marks and had started wearing some of her better fitting and more appealing tops.

She had been released from bed rest almost a week ago now and though she had been hesitant at first she had been eager to leave the small room that she had been confined to for a while now. Taking the crutches that Donatello had offered her she had made her way out of the infirmary and back out to the main living area of the turtles' home. The blue and red masked turtles had been no where in sight, making Melinda feel a little more at ease. The purple masked turtle had helped her over to the couch, telling her not to over do it at first since she had been on bed rest for a week and would tire easily.

Melinda had wanted to object at first, had been anxious to get home and get her things, call Buddy and tell him she would need a leave of absence. But after being allowed to use the turtle's pay phone to check her voice mail, and getting ever increasingly angry voice mails from Buddy about her continued absence without even having the courtesy to call Melinda realized that she no longer had a job with Buddy. And his last voice mail had confirmed that. He'd also said that if he got a call from any future boss that he would not hesitate to tell them about her extended leave of unapproved absence. Buddy was not someone you crossed. A bad recommendation from him could ruin any chance she had of getting a good job here in the city. She'd known from the moment she'd taken the job that the man she was working for could make or break her career, and unfortunately it had been the latter for her.

With no job to go back to, and with her apartment unsecure Melinda had no reason to fight to go home. She wasn't in a hurry to run into those creeps in the black pajamas again. She wasn't sure if she'd survive another visit to their headquarters. She definitely didn't want to have to find out the hard way.

But that didn't mean she was comfortable here either. The blue and red masked turtles intimidated and frightened her. She felt uneasy every time one of them was close. The amber eyes of the red masked turtle always sent chills down her spine. She wasn't sure how that woman, Elizabeth, looked him straight in the face. Melinda could barely look at him from clear across the room, let alone be right next to him and look up into those blazing amber eyes. But it seemed as if Elizabeth was "with" the turtle. The way she looked at him, and touched his face, or brushed his arm with her hand as she passed him all indicated an intimate relationship.

It was obvious that these turtles weren't animals, that they had feelings and acted as humane and were as gracious as any human host would be. But Melinda couldn't help but watch those two interact with each other. The way that Elizabeth could seem to calm down the hot headed turtle with a simple squeeze to his bicep, or putting a hand on his plastron. The turtle's hard eyes would snap to her face and Elizabeth would stare back at him evenly. Depending on the situation the turtle would either storm off to what Melinda assumed was an exercise room to release the built up tension or his shoulders would slump in defeat and Elizabeth's arms would wrap around him as she hugged him, his own arms would wrap around her waist and he would bury his face into her shoulder as he held her close.

As for the turtle that Melinda had rescued that night, Michelangelo – that was his name. She had heard one of the other turtles calling him that and at first she hadn't known who they were talking to until the turtle that she'd rescued had turned to look at the speaker. Melinda knew that the other three turtles were worried about him. She saw them sharing anxious expressions and talking in hushed tones whenever he wasn't around. It was clear that he didn't remember who they were, but he did remember her.

The first day that she had been let off bed rest and had been allowed to sit on the couch so she could watch TV the turtle had joined her, bringing with him a bowl of popcorn. He'd smiled at her, a warm friendly smile that had made her feel so much more at ease than she did with any of the other turtles. She never felt more comfortable down here than when she was with him. There was just something so soothing about his presence. Where as the blue and red masked turtles always seemed to radiate tension, power and intimidation, this turtle was the complete opposite. She gravitated towards him. Unable to help herself. And with his own injuries his physical activities were also limited, so he spent a lot of time with her on the couch.

Akemi was often present during the afternoon hours to watch a movie, sitting between the two of them. Melinda had learned that she loved The Lion King and would try to persuade anyone and everyone to allow her to watch it over and over again. With her pearly white teeth, dimples, bright green eyes, long brown curls and perky personality Melinda found that hard to resist, and so did Michelangelo so they often gave in to her demands and let her watch the movie over and over again.

Akemi would happily swing her feet off the end of the couch and sing along with the "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" and "Hakuna Matata" much to Melinda's amusement. And from the look on Michelangelo's face he found it quite entertaining as well.

Elizabeth would only allow Akemi so much TV time a day and then would insist on stories or play time. Akemi had delighted in bringing Michelangelo and Melinda several horse figurines, some of them very scuffed up. One of them had a mane made of rabbit's fur that was starting to come unglued. Akemi had kissed the top of the horse's head and had announced it "all better".

It was impossible not to be taken in by Akemi's charm. And hard not to notice the way she loved the red masked turtle or the way she would run to the blue masked turtle after he was done in the exercise room. She would fling herself at him and he would catch her in the air, shifting her to his side and holding her gently. They both seemed so patient with her, so gentle. Something that Melinda never would've expected from either of them.

She had been very surprised the day she had seen Akemi running to the blue masked turtle, and after catching her and shifting her weight, had began to converse in a strange language, only to have Akemi respond in the same language. What was that – Chinese? Japanese? The child was bilingual. That was something most adults struggled with.

Whatever he had said to her had made her laugh with delight. Melinda had watched as he'd put her down, she'd run for the kitchen where the smell of warm chocolate chip cookies were baking, and a few seconds later had come out with two cookies in her hands. One for herself and one for the turtle. The blue masked turtle had smirked as he'd picked her up again and she'd put the cookie to his mouth. He'd taken it and was still chewing his first bite when Elizabeth had come out and scolded them both, telling them the cookies were for dessert. But she hadn't really sounded angry. She'd looked amused and so had the turtle.

It was a strange family to be sure, but it was obvious that this family cared deeply for each other. That they were close and that they would do anything for each other.

Melinda was jolted out of her thoughts, as the couch shifted, Michelangelo joining her once again, holding a bag of potato chips, being careful not to jar her broken leg, which was propped up on a small stool that Donatello had brought out for her.

"Hey, Melinda… whatcha watchin'?"

Melinda shrugged. She hadn't really been paying attention to what she had been watching to be honest. She'd been absent-mindedly flipping through the channels caught up in her own thoughts and had paused on one station without realizing that she had.

Michelangelo pushed a couple chips into his mouth. "Didn't know you liked wrestling."

Melinda started. She didn't. "Oh… I guess I wasn't really paying attention," she admitted as she picked up the remote again. She held it out to him. "Here, why don't you pick something."

Michelangelo took it. "Actually, I saw that Ghost Rider was going to be on tonight. Want to watch that?"

"I've never seen it before."

"Can't remember if I have either," Michelangelo said with a smirk.

Melinda couldn't help but smile at his joke, though she doubted any of the other turtles would've found it funny, she was glad that Michelangelo could poke fun at his own condition even if it was only around her. She'd noticed that he seemed awkward around his brothers, looking almost as uncomfortable as she was around them. Not that she could blame them, it must be hard to be the turtle that they wanted to be, the turtle that he couldn't remember.

It wasn't fair that they were putting so much pressure on him to be someone he couldn't remember.

Michelangelo scrolled though the channels until he reached the one he was looking for. Obviously the movie had already started. Though if Melinda were to guess she wouldn't think that it had started all that long ago. She settled back against the cushions. Michelangelo offered her the chips. Melinda looked at the flavor. Barbeque. Her favorite. She took a few chips and put one in her mouth.

Michelangelo shifted a little on the couch. "You want a soda or something?"

"Um, just water is fine," Melinda said a bit shyly.

Michelangelo grinned and stood up, heading to the kitchen only to return a minute later with a couple water bottles. He settled back down next to her, handing her one of the bottles.

"Thanks," Melinda said as she took the bottle from him. He smiled, taking a few more chips and settled in to watch the movie.

* * *

Leonardo left the dojo, feeling refreshed after his meditation session, trying to ease his troubled thoughts about his brother. Though he often found peace and a sense of calm in the spiritual plane he hadn't been able to find what he had been seeking lately. But he knew that the answers he wanted weren't so easily found. He knew that Donatello had been doing as much research as he could on amnesia and how to help people who suffered with it, hoping to find some way to bring Mikey back. But like Leonardo the answers he found were not definitive, and weren't much help in bringing Mikey back into the shell that Michelangelo was.

Though, Leonardo had noticed that part of Michelangelo's personality had still stuck with him. The fact that Michelangelo had a tendency to prefer superhero movies and cartoons. Leonardo had seen him on the couch with Melinda and Akemi watching The Lion King several times over the past week, and even when Akemi wasn't around Michelangelo had enjoyed cartoon TV shows, laughing loudly when he watched The Simpsons with Melinda.

Leonardo couldn't help but feel a little jealous of Melinda. Michelangelo seemed much more relaxed around her than with any of the rest of them. It hadn't gone unnoticed that Michelangelo's shoulders were tense and that he was quieter when he was just around his brothers. That he seemed so uncomfortable.

What was the difference between him being around Melinda and him being around them that brought out such a change in his personality? They were after all his brothers.

When Leonardo had asked Master Splinter about this he'd been told to meditate on the questions he had. And so he had been, but the answers never seemed to be what he expected. Or what he wanted. He always got the feeling that Michelangelo felt less pressured when he was around Melinda, that she simply allowed him to be who he was and that she wasn't trying to pressure him into being the brother that he couldn't remember. And although Leonardo could understand that it didn't help him figure out how to bring Michelangelo back.

Glancing over to the entertainment center corner he saw Michelangelo's head sitting next to Melinda, on the many TVs were two figures on fire riding through the desert, to a fast paced theme. Obviously a superhero type of movie, he wasn't sure if it was something Melinda had picked or if it had been Michelangelo. But if it had been his brother, it meant that a part of Mikey was definitely surfacing at least a little bit, and if he was he would do whatever it took to bring that part up until his brother was back, his memories restored and he was truly able to bring his brother home.


	17. Chapter 16

**Hey everyone. Hope everyone has had a good couple of weeks. Thanks again for those who take the time to review. I'll try and get another chapter posted this next weekend. Hope everyone has a good week. Enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 16**

Mikey yawned stretching. Not knowing when he'd fallen asleep, after Ghost Rider he and Melinda had watched Dare Devil, which had seemed to make Melinda sad. She hadn't seen that one either and had looked upset at the end of the movie. When she'd voiced her opinion that Super Heroes must be lonely Michelangelo had looked at her surprised. She'd then explained that they were always alone, pushing away those they loved to keep them safe from those who would want to hurt them, or as in Dare Devil's case they were killed.

Michelangelo had thought this over carefully, realizing that Melinda did have a point. Most super hero movies didn't have happy endings where the hero got the girl. Most super hero endings were of the super hero riding off into the distance to save someone else. Realizing that if they did fall in love and keep someone close they would wind up being hurt. It wasn't really a happy prospect. Michelangelo wasn't sure if he ever wanted to be a hero if that's what it meant.

It would be depressing to always be alone. Even though those other strange turtles were always hovering whenever he was close to them and trying to make him be someone he couldn't remember at least he felt wanted. Well a part of him was wanted anyway. He could see the concerns in their faces and had seen them exchange worried glances when they thought he wasn't looking. But he wasn't stupid. He knew what they wanted, but he wasn't sure if he could give it to them… or if he wanted to give it to them if he could.

The problem was that these turtles seemed to be fighters, and although he couldn't remember how he'd gotten these injuries he did remember those turtles in Melinda's apartment and they had been fierce fighters. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be like them. To fight evil. To never get the girl. To be destined to be alone.

But that red masked turtle… Ralph… no… Raph, that was it. Raphael. He had Elizabeth. Michelangelo liked Elizabeth. Elizabeth was very nice, and she was beautiful. The way her long dark hair fell down her back like a waterfall, the way those emerald eyes seemed to sparkle when she smiled, how her cheeks went pink with pleasure when she held her daughter. And Raphael seemed crazy about her. Michelangelo had caught them a couple times in a tender moment when he'd headed to the kitchen for a snack. He had always quietly snuck away before they noticed him, but it had also made him curious.

Maybe if Elizabeth liked Raphael… he looked over at Melinda and was surprised to see she'd fallen asleep too. Her long blond curls had trailed over her shoulder, and were touching the couch cushions, her head resting on the opposite arm of the couch where she sat. Her broken leg sprawled a bit awkwardly on the stool that the purple masked turtle, Donatello, had given her. Quietly, Michelangelo stood up, carefully adjusted her leg onto the couch where she would be more comfortable and covered her with an afghan blanket that was draped over the back of the couch.

Melinda shifted a little in her sleep, a frown forming between her brows, but then smoothed out a few seconds later.

Hearing noises from the kitchen, and knowing it had to be close to dinner time, Michelangelo headed to the kitchen. He could talk to Elizabeth. She wouldn't laugh.

He was relieved to see that Elizabeth was alone. Usually Akemi was sitting at the table coloring or eating a small snack of berries before dinner but she was absent tonight. Probably with Raphael or Leonardo somewhere, he thought.

Elizabeth seemed to be working on dessert, the smell of dinner was already heavy in the kitchen, which meant it had been cooking for a while. Elizabeth had three round chocolate cakes and was spreading some frosting onto one of the layers, a bag of chocolate chips next to her.

"Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth jumped, her arm jerked and missed the cake, getting her wrist instead. She turned looking at Michelangelo. "Mikey, you scared me."

"Oh… I'm… I'm sorry." He apologized feeling sheepish. "I wasn't trying to… "

Elizabeth chuckled as she grabbed a paper towel, wiping the icing off her skin. "I know that. Here why don't you come taste this for me? I've never made this before so I'm a bit nervous about it."

Michelangelo's eyes widened. And he smiled as she dipped a spoon into the frosting and held it out to him. He took it from her, immediately tasting the treat. It was sweet, but had a slight tang to it, giving it a small edge. He really liked it.

"That's good." He licked the spoon clean.

"Good, I was worried it might be too tangy… " Elizabeth said, obviously relieved that he'd liked it. She spread some more icing on the bottom layer and then sprinkled some chocolate chips on it before carefully picking up the second cake, centering it, and dropping it on the first layer.

"So… what kind of cake is this?" Mikey asked hoping to sound casual.

Elizabeth smiled as she checked the two cakes before beginning to ice the second layer. "It's called chocolate lasagna. I've had it a few times, but never made it. It's really good though."

"Well the icing is really good. "

Elizabeth smiled at him over her shoulder. "So you said. Since you're just standing there would you mind peeling those potatoes for me?"

Mikey looked at the pile of potatoes that were sitting next to the sink, waiting to be peeled, a potato peeler was already sitting next to them. He nodded and walked over to the sink, picking up a potato, and ran the potato peeler over it. The blades were sharp making the chore easy as the skins flew off the potatoes with ease.

"So you want to tell me what's really on your mind?" Elizabeth asked as Mikey put the first peeled potato down onto a paper towel.

"That obvious?" Mikey asked, frowning a little as he picked up the second potato.

"Not really," Elizabeth said easily. "But you look like you've got something on your mind. You are always a bit twitchy when you want to talk about something but aren't sure how you should go about it. Your fingers were twitching when I gave you the icing to taste."

Mikey looked at his hands surprised. He hadn't even noticed.

"Muscle memory remembers faster than the brain does I think," Elizabeth said keeping her voice gentle and kind. "So is something wrong?"

"No… no it's nothing like that." Mikey sighed, watching the potato peels shoot into the sink. "I was just wondering about something… "

"Well… " Elizabeth said keeping her voice just as gentle and patient as before. "What is it? Maybe I can help."

This was going to be more awkward than Michelangelo had expected. He bit his lip, not answering for a few minutes peeling a couple more potatoes before finally asking what he was so desperate to know.

"You… you love Raphael don't you?"

Of all the questions it was obvious that this wasn't the one Elizabeth had been expecting. She put down the spatula she was using to frost the cake and looked at him, leaning against the counter and crossing her arms across her chest, looking at him with her undivided attention now.

"Yes, I do, Mikey. I love him a lot."

Mikey swallowed hard, and nodded. He put the fourth peeled potato down and grabbed the next one. "I was just wondering… when did you… I mean… how did you… "

"Raphael found me in the park… saved me from a couple of men that were trying to hurt me. He brought me down here. To the lair and your family. I'd been injured and I didn't want to go to the hospital, he wasn't sure what else he should do so he had Donny fix me up."

"And you've just been down here ever since?"

"Well… no," Elizabeth said as if considering the question carefully. "But for the most part I have. After Akemi was born she was sick for a little while so I wanted to stay close to the hospital and the doctors just in case I needed to take her there. So I stayed with April and Casey until Akemi was well enough to come home to the lair."

"But after that?"

"For the most part, yes," Elizabeth said nodding her head.

"Because you love Raphael?"

"Because I love all of you. You guys let me into your lives and your home. You're my family too." He could hear the concern and confusion in her voice. She obviously had no idea what he was trying to ask and was trying figure it out.

"Elizabeth, do you think that we could… I mean the rest of us could ever… you know like you and Raphael?"

"Oh," Elizabeth's eyes widened, now understanding what Michelangelo was getting at. "You mean, like Melinda?"

She saw his face darken a little, obviously embarrassed, which meant she had gotten to the point he'd been trying to get to.

Elizabeth smiled and walked over to the orange masked turtle. Putting a hand on his arm. He flinched. But she didn't let go. "Mikey, a girl would have to be crazy not to want to be with you. You are one of the most loving souls I've ever met. You're funny and sweet. And I've rarely seen you angry. Anyone you meet you're anxious to be friends with. You've got the bubbliest personality. It might grind on your brothers nerves, but you just wouldn't be you without it."

Michelangelo was shaking his head. None of those things seemed to fit him. "Elizabeth, I'm not… "

"Mikey, I know you don't remember now, but you will in time. But if you care for Melinda, the way I think you do. You'll let her make the decision in the end. Let her know how you feel, but if she decides she doesn't want to stay… well… you can't force someone to fall in love with you. But even if it isn't Melinda, you'll find someone Mikey. She's out there and she'll be worth the wait. I promise. Now finish peeling those potatoes so I can cut them up and get them boiling before they turn brown."

Michelangelo sighed, returning to finish the potatoes. Frowning. It wasn't exactly the way he'd hoped the conversation would go, but if Elizabeth was right, maybe there was a chance that he could have with Melinda what Raphael had with Elizabeth.

* * *

Almost an hour later Michelangelo went to get everyone for dinner. The roast beef was done, and so were the mashed potatoes. He'd helped Elizabeth make the garden salad and had even made the gravy for her, surprised that he seemed to know how to do it. And even more surprised that he was enjoying spending time in the kitchen with her. It was fun to make things with food, taking something and turning it into a master piece. And he'd grinned when he'd seen the finished cake. He was half tempted just to skip dinner and have the cake but Elizabeth had gently pushed him out of the kitchen as she'd stuck the cake in the fridge to give the icing the chance to set before they cut it. So, now that he'd been kicked out Michelangelo dutifully went to get the others for dinner while Elizabeth finished setting the table and set out the food.

Donatello was in his lab, as Michelangelo had come to see that he was usually in his lab.

"Hey, um, Donatello… Elizabeth told me to come get you for dinner."

"Yeah, ok, I'll be there in a minute, Mikey," Donatello said not looking up from the microscope he was looking into.

Michelangelo didn't push the point, knowing that the other turtle would join them in a few minutes, or that he would have to face the wrath of Elizabeth because the food was getting cold. He peeked into the dojo, but no one was in there, which probably meant that the other two were upstairs in their rooms.

Michelangelo decided to get Master Splinter first. He walked quietly across the lair to the paper rice door and knocked.

"Enter."

Michelangelo pushed open the paper rice door and poked his head in. The room smelled strongly of incense and there were several candles lit on the floor, the rat was kneeling, hands on his knees, ears laid back a little, eyes closed.

"Master Splinter?"

The rat's eyes opened.

"Elizabeth told me to get you for dinner."

"Thank you, my son. I will be there in a few minutes."

Michelangelo forced a smile and closed the door. It still felt so weird to be called that by the rat. How could a turtle have a rat for a father?

With a sigh he headed upstairs, stepping carefully over the toy cars Akemi had been playing with.

He found Leonardo in his room, sitting on a mat, legs crossed, arms out, fingers pinched together. It looked uncomfortable, but he was meditating. Perhaps meditation wasn't supposed to be comfortable?

"Leonardo… time for dinner."

Leonardo's eyes snapped open, his concentration broken. He relaxed, seeming to sag a little. "Ok, Mikey, I'm coming."

Michelangelo nodded and went to the next room. What he saw made him smile. Raphael was sound asleep, snoring loudly. Akemi curled into him her thumb in her mouth, her curls fanned out behind her. Michelangelo wasn't sure how she could sleep with Raphael snoring that loud. A Curious George book was on Raphael's plastron. Several more books scattered all over the floor.

Picking his way across the floor trying not to step on any of the toys Akemi had dragged into Raphael's room during play time, Michelangelo made his way further into the room. Accidentally stepping onto the cover of one of the books he slipped slamming into the bed before he could get his balance.

At once Raphael shot up, sai drawn. Michelangelo ducked, hands over his head, sitting hard on the floor. Startled Akemi began to cry.

_Whoa, easy partner don't shoot!_

Michelangelo frowned, keeping his head in his hands. He didn't hear Raphael at first and was startled when Raphael's hand fell on his shoulder.

"Mikey, ya alright?" Raph asked frowning as he looked his brother over.

Michelangelo looked at Raphael, frowning at the echo in his head. Whatever it was it didn't seem to fit with Raphael. In fact he wasn't even sure what it was supposed to be. How strange.

He nodded a bit numbly.

Raphael sat back on his heels, concern turning to annoyance. "Did ya need somet'in?"

"Uh yeah, Elizabeth said dinner is ready."

"Yeah, ok we'll be down in a minute."

Michelangelo nodded and stood up carefully picking his way around the items on the floor once again, Raph really should clean his room, and back towards the stairs.

Downstairs he could see Donatello leaving his lab stretching as he went, obviously stiff from the hours spent in his lab chair studying whatever he'd been looking at under his microscope.

And then the world suddenly felt fuzzy, he felt dizzy and sick. As if he were seeing something play out in front of him. But knew that it was just in his head. He put a hand to his head, swallowing hard. Trying not to be sick.

Raphael was snoring, and he'd been on the floor. Annoyed he threw a pillow at his brother, but even in his sleep Raphael had blocked it. There had been a red head, packing up some stuff… and Leonardo and Splinter had been watching the news. Side by side both sitting on the floor. And Donatello, he'd been up too, using a blow torch… welding. He'd snuck up behind him and scared him. Donatello, startled had turned around, blow torch still on pointed right at Michelangelo's face.

_Whoa, easy partner, don't shoot!_

Michelangelo, swallowed, taking a step, eyes still shut. He was alarmed when his foot slid out from under him, the toy car whizzing away. Losing his balance, he reached, but there was nothing to grab onto.

He heard someone yelling, someone screaming, his name. He heard something crashing, but it wasn't registering in his head. And then he felt peace as his head bashed into something and his world went dark.


End file.
